Canada annual inflation rate rises to 3 percent in July

[August 17, 2018]  OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's annual inflation rate accelerated to 3.0 percent in July from 2.5 percent in June as energy prices climbed, while one of the Bank of Canada's preferred measures of core inflation also ticked higher, Statistics Canada said on Friday.

The inflation rate was much stronger than the 2.5 percent forecast by analysts in a Reuters poll. The Bank of Canada, which raised interest rates in July for the fourth time in a year, has an inflation target of 2.0 percent.

Energy prices rose 14.2 percent from July 2017, higher than the year-on-year 12.4 percent rise in June, helped by a 25.4 percent jump in gasoline prices. All eight major components rose on a year-over-year basis in July.

Among the core inflation measures, CPI trim, which excludes upside and downside outliers, rose to 2.1 percent from 2.0 percent in June.

The CPI median was 2.0 percent while the CPI common was 1.9 percent.

(Reporting by Fergal Smith; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Paul Simao)

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