OTTAWA — Statistics Canada says the end of the federal government’s “tax holiday” a year earlier pushed the annual pace of inflation up two ticks to 2.4 per cent in December.
The agency says Ottawa’s move to take GST off some items for two months starting mid-December in 2024 dropped prices for dining out, alcohol, children’s toys and more a year earlier, but those discounts fell out of the annual comparison and pushed the consumer price index higher to end the year.
A poll of economists heading into today’s data release had expected the annual inflation rate would hold steady at 2.2 per cent.
An 8.5 per cent yearly jump in the price of restaurant meals drove the December inflation increase, but StatCan says the price of food from the grocery store also ticked up to five per cent annually last month.
A 13.8 per cent year-over-year drop in gasoline prices offered some relief to consumers in December while a jump in the cost of airfare from November helped lift inflation to end the year.
The December inflation figures will be the Bank of Canada’s last look at price data before the central bank makes its first interest rate decision of the year next week.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 19, 2026.
Craig Lord, The Canadian Press
