Statistics Canada says the annual inflation rate turned negative in April as the economy came to a standstill in the first full month of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
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The agency reports the consumer price index for April fell 0.2 per cent compared with a year ago as energy prices plunged. It was the first year-over-year decline in the CPI since September 2009. The reading compared with a year-over-year increase of 0.9 per cent in March when the pandemic began. Economists on average expected a reading of -0.1 per cent for April, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.
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