Canada CPI Rises To 2.4% In December, Tops Forecast

08:55 AM EST, 01/19/2026 (MT Newswires) -- The Canadian consumer price index rose 2.4% on a year-over-year basis in December, following a 2.2% increase in November, said the country's statistical agency on Monday.

December's CPI was higher than the 2.2% year over year consensus provided by MUFG.

The year-over-year acceleration in the all-items CPI was driven by the temporary Goods and Services Tax (GST)/Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) break that began on Dec. 14, 2024, wrote Statistics Canada in a statement. This resulted in monthly declines for the exempt goods and services, which have now fallen out of the year-over-year movement, putting upward pressure on headline CPI growth.

Moderating the acceleration in the headline CPI was a year-over-year decline in prices for gasoline in December, added StatsCan. Excluding gasoline, the CPI rose 3.0% year over year in December, following a 2.6% increase in November.

The CPI fell 0.2% month over month on a non-seasonally adjusted basis in December. On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, the CPI advanced 0.3%.

The CPI rose 2.1% on an annual average basis in 2025, following an increase of 2.4% in 2024. Although this was the smallest annual average increase since 2020, prices remained elevated in 2025, rising 19.9% over the past five years, according to the Ottawa-based agency. Excluding energy, the annual average CPI rose 2.6% in 2025, matching the increase in 2024.

The monthly and quarterly CPI reports, reported by StatsCan, measure the index level of prices paid by consumers for a basket of goods and services such as food, energy, vehicle, medical care, apparel, and housing. The core measure, which excludes food and energy due to their volatility, is closely watched by markets and the Bank of Canada as a sign of underlying inflation pressures.

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