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Canada Inflation Drops to 2% 

Canada Inflation Drops to 2% 
Canada Inflation Drops to 2% 

Canada’s inflation rate cooled to two percent in November, down from 2.4 percent the previous month mainly due to a sharp decline in gasoline prices.

Statistics Canada said that gasoline prices declined almost six percent last month, down to their lowest level since February 2011 and enough to drag the overall inflation rate lower, CBCNews reported.

The transportation index declined by 0.2 percent in the past year, the only subindex that declined.

Economists had been expecting the inflation rate to stay at 2.4 percent during the month on the assumption that price increases in other areas would have been enough to offset cheaper energy. But that didn’t happen.

Aside from gasoline, some of the major contributors to price decreases were travel tours at 10 percent, video equipment at 9.3 percent, digital computing equipment and devices at 4.2 percent.

Regionally, prices rose at slower year-over-year rates in nine provinces in November compared with October, the data agency said. Inflation slowed the most in Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island, followed by Alberta. British Columbia was the only province where prices increased at a faster year-over-year rate in November than in October.

  Exports

The lower loonie will put more money in the pockets of Canadian Christmas tree exporters this year, just as the industry is preparing to ramp up production to meet an anticipated surge in demand from south of the border.

The US is the largest market for Canadian Christmas tree exporters, with more than 1.5 million trees shipped across the border last year, according to Statistics Canada. With the loonie hovering below 90 cents US, Canadian tree growers — who sell their trees in US dollars — are expecting to see their revenues climb higher.

The Christmas Tree Council of Nova Scotia says its exporters will earn 10 to 15 percent more per tree this year, according to the organization’s industry coordinator, Colette Wyllie. For balsam firs, which grow abundantly in Nova Scotia, that could mean an extra $2-3 per tree.

“The wholesale price for trees has not changed in a long time, so to be able to increase revenues because of the strong US dollar is really a great thing,” Wyllie said.

Financialtribune.com