Consumer inflation surged last month to 2.8 per cent compared to a year earlier, with higher gas prices being the primary driver, according to Statistics Canada.
The latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) for April was up 0.4 per cent compared to the March report of 2.4 per cent for year-over-year inflation.
This comes as the war in Iran, and specifically the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, has led to several months of global uncertainty for oil markets. Consumer gas prices in Canada have spiked since the conflict began, and are close to breaking all-time highs.
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said Tuesday that he understands how affordability continues to be a challenge for Canadians amid the Iran war.
“We understand that all of these challenges that are affecting the world economy also have an impact on Canadians and on affordability,” Champagne told reporters while attending a meeting of G7 finance ministers and central bank governors in France.
“You can talk about the world economy and balances, the challenges in the Strait of Hormuz. If you talk to people on the street, that translates to them into affordability.”
A higher inflation reading could also put pressure on the Bank of Canada to raise borrowing costs in the months ahead, as the central bank’s target range for CPI is between one and three per cent.
Get breaking National news
Some experts believe the underlying trend for inflation in Canada should keep the Bank of Canada on pause.
“Inflation of 2.8 per cent will be the headline today, but when you peel out rising gas costs, inflation in Canada is still right where the Bank of Canada wants it to be,” said personal finance expert Clay Jarvis at NerdWallet Canada in a statement.
“There’s fear that high fuel costs will bleed into other prices, but that hasn’t happened to a significant degree.”
All measures of core inflation, which excludes volatile sectors like food, gas and energy prices, actually showed slight year-over-year declines in April.
For example, Statistics Canada says when stripping away gasoline from the report, CPI was two per cent in April compared to a year ago, and that’s lower than the March reading of 2.2 per cent. It adds that April saw gas prices increase by 28.6 per cent after a 5.9 per cent gain in March.
The bank tends to focus on core measures of inflation when updating monetary policy and interest rates because they highlight key underlying trends in consumer prices.
“So long as inflation is largely gas-related, the Bank of Canada is likely to look through it and keep interest rates at their current levels when they make their overnight rate decision in June,” said Jarvis.
Statistics Canada also says the removal of the consumer carbon tax last year resulted in a base-year effect last month. That’s because the removal of the federal carbon tax for consumers ended up lowering gas prices overnight last year, so there was a sharp comparable increase in gas prices last month.
The federal government also paused the fuel excise tax for consumers last month, which provided some temporary relief for consumers at the gas pump.
Food prices climbed 3.5 per cent in April compared to the same month in 2025, but that was down half a per cent from the four per cent year over year increase in March 2026. Price growth eased for grocery items such as chicken, fresh vegetables, coffee and tea following sharp increases earlier in the year.
“The key signal to watch is whether core inflation remains stable in the months ahead. Encouragingly it did in April, with some categories, including food, showing signs of improvement. Still, Canadians’ patience may be tested as headline inflation moves closer to three per cent heading into the summer.”
Clothing and footwear prices rose two per cent pace last month compared to a year ago, which was a faster pace than the 0.4 per cent increase in March. Jarvis said this could reflect higher shipping costs as a knock on effect from the Iran war.
– With a file from The Canadian Press
This is just side effect of what!te suprimist who messed up global oil supplies and livelihood of millions just for their own ego, now blame this also on non-wh!te immigrants you fools
Just blame everything on government.4th highest oil reserve, my foot. Don’t know basic economics to know the cost of refining these and transporting to make any real money. BTW these resources are not yours, it’s indigenous land stolen by your grandparents through force and loot
To the idiotic commentators who claim east Indians are getting money from government, i dont know if you are jorn stupid or parents raised you to be dump. These international students and other immigrant streams have brought it lot of money from oversees , pay taxes to feed you homeless scumbags and get confused with refugees who gets handout. Wh!te dump asses
Another failure by Carney.
trumpwar makes trumpflation
As Canada is the World’s fourth-largest oil producer, couldn’t, or shouldn’t some concession be made for Canadians?
How can 1 station in a whole town sell gas for 22 cents a liter less than everyone else , explain this please, and who enjoys all the extra money that is flooding in by these high prices
The big three grocery companies are price gouging every chance they get. Finally got my money from the bread fixing scandal but now they are inflating their meat with saline injections. Government should step in but Ford doesn’t care.
Roy just stop posting anonymous you’re the only troll on here spreading worthless information.
liberal government are doing such a great job!! causing inflation but the good news is all the east Indians and miscellaneous new Canadians get enough free money they don’t have to worry about paying high for gas
Poor Peter Belinski thinks his troll life is worth anything.
Backing Smith and PP here. Wonder why Putin wants weak leaders here…but he poisons his own.
Russian troll Peter Belinski is back. LOL!
He is a coward or he’d be in Ukraine.
Chickenzhit pretending anyone cares what he posts here from communist Russia.
Anonymous aka Roy Stephenson is a serial l I b t a r d he has many alter ego personalities including women sad existence Roy
How much is gas in Red Deer?
About 20 times as much as an EV charge?
Thank you Prime Minister for the cheap EV I bought.
No more gas gouging for me!
@Les:
Trying hard to deflect from trump again are you?
Pretty pathetic and feeble attempts.
Nice gold statue of himself he made.
@ Roy: Oh look! Aniother Russkie cheering for Mansion PP.
Wonder why?
LOL
Yes, fuel prices are affecting costs, but we already had unaffordable everything before this conflict started. Our media should start pointing fingers at real issue here, but they’re too reliant on tax dollar subsidies.
Lots of love I i b t a r d s on here trying to justify Carneys failing economy. let’s blame everyone except the taxes Canadians pay, 43% of every dollar earned by Canadians taken in taxes to support asylum seekers and welfare bums.
Tony Fuda the russian troll. Why do the Russians want idiots like PP and Smith in power?
Oh…yeah.
EV was virtually free this month.
How are you trump fans doing in your gas guzzler stinkbombs?
My budget has dropped.
trump sure brought prices down.
LOL
Duke
May 19, 2026 at 11:00 am
We’re in a Trump-covid. And the right-nuts are saying to look the other way.
Imagine blaming Trump for Canadian issues and down falls. TDS at its finest.
I’m a delusional ev owner I think I’m saving the planet one charge at a time.
I can’t wait to buy a Chinese spy car it’s the only accomplishment Carney has achieved in 14
We’re in a Trump-covid. And the right-nuts are saying to look the other way.
Thank the idiot south of the border!
Good on Carney to trade canola oil for EV’s .
Where’s PP? In his mansion whining ?
He’s why I left for the Liberals.
@ Denis Brady: Denis is a PP clownvoyer who thinks Canada shut the Strait of Hormuz. Always an imbecile on here.
Not EV owners.
I save a hundred bucks a week.
Doesn’t care Carney is at it again
Carninflation with higher “industrial carbon taxes”
What a crock.
Diesel fuel is up 60% year over year.
Food goes up 10 percent PER WEEK.
Clothing, meals, etc,
There are fuel surcharges on almost everything now.
Total fail by Carney
It’s way higher than this. Just go to the grocery store and get any wet pork done in your house. Canada is an inflationary mess brought on many by high taxation, bureaucratic red tape and brutal production.
My ice cream has gone up 14.5% in one year. How can inflation be only 2.8%. Do there take out everything that goes up out off inflation numbers?