Consumer prices were up in nine provinces compared with a year ago as Saskatchewan posted the largest increase, followed by Ontario.
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After a period of negative inflation, the CPI has now risen for five successive months, including 0.3% in June.
Lower energy prices continued to moderate the year-over-year rise in the CPI; however, the effect was less pronounced in July than in the previous month.
In volume terms, wholesale sales rose 1.1 per cent in June.
Stats Can said that growth was driven by stronger sales of phones and home office electronics, which the agency said coincided with new rules that limited the duration of cellphone contracts. “Today’s data release leaves our current tracking for Q2 real GDP growth at -1.0% (annualized), reinforcing our view of a second consecutive contraction”, says TD Economics.
“Last year, the annual average (for inflation) was 2.4 per cent, so we’re still below that”, said Sask Trends Monitor publisher Doug Elliott. The report from July is not likely to persuade the bank to make a change as it said it judges the underlying inflation in the country at between 1.5% and 1.7%.
“It is something that is on the horizon for them, but the growth story is probably the more important one for the Bank of Canada”, he said.
The Bank of Canada has cut interest rates twice this year to prop up the struggling economy and sees the effects of a weaker currency and some sector-specific factors as temporarily boosting the core rate.
Sales rose in eight of 11 major categories representing 64 per cent of retailing, including a 2.6 per cent increase at gasoline stations on higher prices.
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This inflation rate translates to a 3.5 per cent increase in food purchased from Canadian grocery stores and a massive 6.1 per cent bump in the cost in meat.
