Canada's inflation rate fell to 2.8 percent in June as gasoline cooled

2.8 percent. That was Canada's headline inflation rate in June, down from 3.2 percent in May, according to Statistics Canada, which released the figure on July 20 and attributed most of the slowdown to a smaller year-over-year rise in gasoline prices. On the month, the index fell 0.4 percent, the largest monthly decline since December 2024. Gasoline did most of the work.

Pump prices were still higher than a year earlier, up 20.5 percent, but that was well below the 33.2 percent annual increase recorded in May, and gasoline fell 10.2 percent from the previous month as global oil prices eased. Strip gasoline out and it steadied. Excluding gasoline, prices rose 2.2 percent year over year, the same pace as in May. The monthly drop measured 0.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis, the first such decline since April 2025.

Not everything cooled. Travellers paid more, with accommodation prices up 10.1 percent from a year earlier against a 2.5 percent rise in May, and the sharpest increases came in Ontario, up 19.4 percent, and British Columbia, up 20.0 percent. Statistics Canada tied those gains to Toronto and Vancouver, both host cities for World Cup matches.