Associate Professor Vivek Dehejia was quoted on iPolitics regarding the latest inflation numbers from StatsCan. Here is a quote from the article:
“If you’re a Liberal supporter that’s what you’re hoping for,” said Vivek Dehejia, an economics professor at Carleton University. “[But] it’s too early to pop the champagne corks.”
Dehejia said StatsCan’s numbers for January are slightly skewered due to how high inflation was at the same time last year due to the war in Ukraine and the ensuing energy crisis.
“It’s true when you take a year-on-year calculation inflation has dropped, but that’s partly an artefact of the way the calculation was made,” he said. “The actual level of the CPI (Consumer Price Index) did not change from December to January.”
While Lam said lower inflation could lead to interest rate cuts in the near future, Dehejia wasn’t so sure.
“[Bank of Canada Governor Tiff] Macklem… I don’t think he’s going to be itching to start cutting rates anytime soon,” said Dehejia. “We will need a few more months where the inflation rate is ticking down to feel confident that the bank can start cutting interest rates.”
The full article can be found on the iPolitics site.