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CPI core-trim and core-median, the measures the Bank of Canada is most focused on, are forecast to come in unchanged from the previous month at 3.3 per cent and 3.4 per cent, respectively.<\/p>\n
Policymakers made it clear when they held interest rates on March 6 that inflation remained too widespread and persistent for them to begin cutting.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what economists are saying about tomorrow\u2019s inflation numbers and what they mean for interest rates.<\/p>\n
\u2018Can\u2019t afford missteps\u2019: Desjardins Financial<\/h2>\n
The Bank of Canada\u2019s preferred measures \u201chave become biased,\u201d Royce Mendes, managing director and head of macro strategy, and Tiago Figueiredo, macro strategist, at Desjardins Financial, said in a note on March 18, \u201clikely overestimating the true underlying inflation rate.\u201d<\/p>\n
They said the central bank\u2019s preferred measures of core-trim and core-median inflation are stripping out items in the CPI basket of components whose prices are decelerating negative five per cent to zero per cent, represented primarily by goods. After adjusting for the \u201cbiases,\u201d they estimate the bank\u2019s measures are more in the neighbourhood of three per cent \u2014 which is at the top of the bank\u2019s inflation target range of one to three per cent.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n