Canada Inflation Rate: Current CPI, Charts and Historical Data

StatsCan releases CPI monthly; this page updates the same day

WOWA® Simply Know Your Options

Canada Inflation Rate Overview

Latest data for August 2026

Yearly Inflation (CPI)

3.0% for August 2026

Core CPI (BoC)

2.2%

CPI Trim

1.9%

CPI Median

2.0%

2-Year Inflation2-Year Cumulative

4.9%

3-Year Inflation3-Year Cumulative

7.0%

Core (All excl. food + energy)

2.1%

Next CPI Release

Oct 19, 2026

Major Components, 12-Month Change

Price changes across major CPI categories in August 2026.

• Energy15.4%
• Transportation7.5%
• Recreation5.6%
• Food2.8%
• Health2.2%
• Shelter1.5%
• Clothing & Footwear1.2%
• Household0.4%

What’s Driving Inflation?

Here are the contributions of each CPI category to Canada’s August 2026 inflation rate.

	12-Month Change (CPI)		Basket Weight (% of CPI)	Contribution to August 2026's Inflation Rate
Food	2.8%	x	16.93%	0.5%
Shelter	1.5%	x	28.30%	0.4%
Household	0.4%	x	12.80%	0.05%
Clothing & Footwear	1.2%	x	4.50%	0.1%
Transport	7.5%	x	18.54%	1.4%
Health	2.2%	x	5.40%	0.1%
Recreation	5.6%	x	9.81%	0.5%
Alcohol, Tobacco, and Cannabis	1.7%	x	3.73%	0.1%

Contribution to August 2026 Inflation Rate of 3.03%

Current Canada Inflation Rate: 3%

Updated on September 14, 2026: Canada's annual inflation rate held steady at 3.0% in August, unchanged from July. Gasoline remained the largest contributor even as its pace eased, rising 23% year over year from 26% in July, with prices staying elevated as the Middle East conflict carried into September. Travel and shelter added to the pressure: travel tours jumped 26% from a year earlier, up from 15% in July on a base-year effect tied to weaker Canadian travel to the U.S. in 2025, while rent picked up to 2.8% from 2.5%. On a monthly basis the CPI slipped 0.1%, or rose 0.2% seasonally adjusted. Underneath the headline, price growth stayed moderate. Inflation excluding gasoline came in at 2.4%, up slightly from 2.2%. Grocery inflation eased to 2.8% from 3.1%, dropping below the all-items rate for the first time since July 2024, led by dairy at just 0.7% year over year. Clothing prices fell 1.1%, and shelter costs stayed low at 1.5%. The Bank of Canada's core measures barely moved, with CPI-trim at 1.9%, CPI-median at 2.0%, and CPI-common easing to 2.6%. Regionally, inflation accelerated in six provinces, led by the Atlantic region, where a 44% jump in fuel oil prices lifted Nova Scotia to 5.1%, Prince Edward Island to 4.4%, and Newfoundland and Labrador to 4.3%. Ontario stayed the lowest at 2.4%. The overall picture is much like July's: energy still leads the cost pressure, with travel and shelter behind, while the underlying trend outside gasoline remains steadier than the 3.0% headline suggests.

Highest1-YearGIC Rates in Canada

See More GIC Rates

Select GIC Term:

6-Mo

1-Yr

2-Yr

3-Yr

4-Yr

5-Yr

Highest1-YearGIC Rates

Select GIC Term:

1-Year

See More GIC Rates

How Statistics Canada Calculates the CPI

Statistics Canada calculates the Consumer Price Index (CPI) by measuring how prices change over time for a fixed basket of goods and services that represents what Canadian households typically purchase.

Key steps

Build the basket

Statistics Canada defines a basket of goods and services that reflects household consumption patterns.

• The basket covers hundreds of representative goods and services, grouped into major categories such as shelter, food, transportation, health, and recreation.
• Expenditure weights are derived primarily from the Survey of Household Spending and national accounts data.
• Major components include shelter, food, and transportation, which together account for a large share of total household spending.
• Basket weights are updated annually, and the CPI series is chain-linked to maintain continuity over time.

Collect prices

• Prices are collected monthly from a wide range of retail outlets, service providers, and administrative data sources across Canada.
• Collected prices reflect what consumers actually pay, including applicable indirect taxes (such as GST/HST), discounts, and sales, where relevant.
• Prices are tracked for specific products and services over time to ensure consistent comparisons.

Compute price indexes

• At the lowest level, price movements are calculated using elementary price indexes, commonly based on geometric means of price relatives.
• These elementary indexes are then aggregated using fixed expenditure weights in a Laspeyres-type (Lowe) index framework, which compares the cost of the basket at current prices to its cost in the reference period.

All-items CPI

The All-items CPI is a weighted average of all component indexes and represents overall consumer price inflation for Canadian households.

Statistics Canada releases the CPI monthly, with inflation most commonly reported as the percentage change from the same month one year earlier.

Today's Mortgage Rates

As of October 11, 2026

	HELOC	1-Year Fixed	2-Year Fixed	3-Year Fixed	5-Year Fixed	5-Year Variable
Lowest Rates	4.45%	5.09%	4.84%	4.29%	4.39%	3.41%
Average Rates (10 Lenders)	--	5.52%	5.13%	4.98%	4.92%	4.08%
30-Days Change of Average Rates	--	24 bps higher	31 bps higher	37 bps higher	30 bps higher	13 bps higher

Term	Lowest Rates	Average Rates (10 Lenders)	30-Days Change of Average Rates
HELOC	4.45% Inquire	--	--
1-Year Fixed	5.09%	5.52%	24 bps higher
2-Year Fixed	4.84%	5.13%	31 bps higher
3-Year Fixed	4.29%	4.98%	37 bps higher
5-Year Fixed	4.39%	4.92%	30 bps higher
5-Year Variable	3.41%	4.08%	13 bps higher

The basket of 10 lenders includes: CIBC, BMO, TD, Scotiabank, RBC, National Bank, Desjardins, nesto, Tangerine, First National.

Headline Inflation

Canada Inflation Rate Statistics (CPI)

Data for August 2026

169.8

Consumer Price Index

(CPI)

-0.1%

Monthly Change

0.1%

Quarterly Change

3.0%

Annual Change

(Inflation Rate)

-0.1%

Monthly Change

0.1%

Quarterly Change

5Y10Y20YMAX

Download Chart asPNGCSV

Highest1-YearGIC Rates

Select GIC Term:

1-Year

See More GIC Rates

Inflation has three broad causes, and most episodes involve more than one at once.

1. Demand-pull inflation happens when spending outpaces what the economy can produce. Sellers raise prices instead of turning customers away. This is the mechanism the Bank of Canada targets most directly, since raising the policy rate makes borrowing more expensive and cools demand.
2. Cost-push inflation comes from the supply side. When production costs rise, through energy, raw materials, wages, shipping, or tariffs, producers pass some of that increase on. Energy is the most common source of such inflation in Canada, since higher oil prices feed through to gasoline, heating, and the cost of moving every other good to market. Rate increases don’t affect the price of oil, which makes it harder for a central bank to address.
3. Built-in inflation keeps the other two going. When people expect prices to keep rising, workers seek higher wages and employers raise prices to cover the wage bill. That loop is known as a wage-price spiral, and it is why central banks watch inflation expectations closely.

This is also why the Bank of Canada watches core measures rather than the headline rate alone. A gasoline spike fades from the twelve-month comparison on its own, while broad-based price pressure across the basket is the problem that calls for a policy response.

Since food and energy prices have historically been the most volatile components of the CPI basket, core inflation is defined as changes in the consumer price index for all items, excluding food and energy. Central banks need to see the underlying trend of inflation. It is understood that inflation is often a monetary problem. It is also understood that high inflation harms the fabric of society. Thus, most modern economies have independent central banks tasked with controlling inflation.

In August 2026, Canada's headline inflation rate was 3.0%, while the Bank of Canada's preferred core measures sat at 1.9% and 2.0%.

In Canada, CPIX excludes fruits, vegetables, gasoline, fuel oil, natural gas, mortgage interest, intercity transportation and tobacco products. CPIX also excludes price changes because of indirect taxes. Statistics Canada continues to calculate and publish CPIX.

Bank of Canada (BoC) used CPIX as its measure of the underlying trend of inflation. However, BoC research found that CPIX is not suitable for guiding monetary policy since other components can show volatility as well, while prices of excluded components also change due to underlying inflationary pressures. That study suggested that no single measure of core inflation is suitable for guiding monetary policy. Yet there are three reasonably good measures of core inflation: CPI-trim, CPI-median and CPI-common.

The percentage change in the price of each CPI component constitutes a distribution.

CPI-trim: Excluding the components in this distribution's left and right tail produces a basket whose price change is CPI-trim. CPI-trim produced by Statistics Canada and used by the BoC excludes the components accounting for the 20% of basket weight with the greatest price rises and the 20% with the greatest price declines or least price increases. Thus, CPI-trim inflation reflects price changes in the middle 60% of the basket by weight.

CPI-median: CPI-median inflation measures the rise in the price of the CPI component whose price is rising faster than half of CPI basket components but slower than the price of the other half of CPI basket components.

CPI-common: CPI-common measures the price changes in common between different CPI components, using a statistical technique called a factor model to separate shared movements from those specific to individual components.

WOWA Leads Inc. does not provide any financial services and is not responsible for any services offered by smarter.loans

Personal Loans up to $35,000

1 Day Approval

Apply Online

WOWA Leads Inc. does not provide any financial services and is not responsible for any services offered by smarter.loans

Inflation and interest rates in Canada are tightly linked because the Bank of Canada targets 2% inflation (within a 1–3% band) and uses the Bank of Canada policy rate to keep inflation near that target. When inflation changes, it ripples through the entire interest‑rate structure that households and businesses face.

When inflation is running above the 2% target, the Bank of Canada usually raises its overnight policy rate to cool demand, which pushes up prime rates, variable mortgage rates, lines of credit, and many business loan rates.

Higher inflation expectations also tend to lift long‑term bond yields (Government of Canada bonds), because investors demand extra compensation for the expected erosion of purchasing power, which in turn increases fixed mortgage rates and GIC rates.

When inflation falls below target, or the economy weakens, the Bank typically cuts the policy rate to stimulate borrowing and spending, leading to lower variable mortgage and HELOC rates and, over time, lower fixed‑rate borrowing costs.

Changes in the policy rate also affect savings products: high inflation/high rate periods usually bring better yields on GICs and high‑interest savings accounts, while low inflation/low rate periods reduce returns for savers but cheapen borrowing for households and firms.

Because Canadian lenders price many products off the Bank's policy rate and Government of Canada bond yields, shifts in inflation and inflation expectations end up influencing everything from mortgage rates to car loans, student loans, and corporate bond yields.

Inflation erodes the purchasing power of money, and in Canada, it affects taxes and government payments in two primary ways.

• Tax brackets and credits rise: CRA indexes federal/provincial tax brackets, basic personal amount, TFSA limit, and credits (e.g., GST/HST) to CPI annually, while the RRSP dollar limit is indexed to average wage growth instead; this indexation uses CPI from October to September and is mandated by the Income Tax Act, s. 117.1 (Can.).
• Social payments increase: OAS and GIS are adjusted quarterly with CPI, while CPP benefits are adjusted each January, the Canada Child Benefit each July, and provincial assistance on its own schedule, all to preserve real value.

Higher inflation means bigger nominal paycheques trigger more tax, but indexed thresholds offset most of it; benefits rise too, preventing this mechanism from improving the government's fiscal position.

The following definitions explain common terms used on this page to help interpret Canada's inflation data.

Consumer Price Index (CPI)

A measure of prices over time for a typical basket of goods and services purchased by Canadian (or another geography's) households.

Headline CPI

The overall CPI that includes all categories, such as food, shelter, transportation, and energy. Its change is the most commonly cited inflation rate.

Inflation Rate

The percentage change in CPI over a given period, indicating how quickly prices are rising or falling.

Year‑over‑Year (YoY)

Compares prices in a given month to the same month one year earlier. This is the standard way inflation is reported.

Month‑over‑Month (MoM)

Compares prices to the previous month. This shows short‑term price movements but can be more volatile.

Seasonally Adjusted

Data that has been adjusted to remove predictable seasonal patterns, such as higher travel costs in summer, makes month‑to‑month comparisons clearer.

Core Inflation

Measures of inflation that exclude volatile items (such as gasoline) to better reflect underlying price trends. In Canada, the Bank of Canada's preferred core measures are CPI‑trim, CPI‑median, and CPI‑common.

CPI Basket

The collection of goods and services used to calculate CPI, weighted based on how much households typically spend on each category.

Contribution to Inflation

Shows how much each category (for example, food or shelter) adds to or subtracts from the overall inflation rate.

What is Canada's current inflation rate?

Canada's annual inflation rate was 3.0% in August 2026, unchanged from July. Statistics Canada measures this as the 12-month change in the Consumer Price Index. The Bank of Canada's core measures were below the headline rate, with CPI-trim at 1.9% and CPI-median at 2.0%.

When is the next inflation rate announcement?

Statistics Canada releases CPI data monthly at 8:30 a.m. ET. The next release covers September 2026 data and is scheduled for October 19, 2026.

What is the Bank of Canada's inflation target?

The Bank of Canada targets 2% inflation, the midpoint of a 1% to 3% control range. It uses the policy interest rate to keep inflation near that target. The rate currently sits at 2.25%.

How does inflation affect mortgage rates?

Higher inflation typically pushes mortgage rates up through two channels. The Bank of Canada raises its policy rate to cool demand, which lifts prime and variable rates directly. Higher inflation expectations also raise Government of Canada bond yields, which is what fixed mortgage rates are priced off.