Canada's inflation up 2 % in April

Inflation crept up 2 percent in Canada in April on an annual basis, driven mostly by transportation costs, Statistics Canada said Friday. The consumer price index was higher in all eight measured sectors, with the gasoline index at its highest since July 2008, a StatsCan report said. Overall transportation costs, including vehicle prices and insurance, were up 3.2 percent. Despite the broad increase in energy costs, prices for natural gas dropped by 13.9 percent on an annual basis. The second largest inflationary factor was food, the agency said. "Prices for food rose 2.5 percent in April compared with the same month a year earlier," StatsCan said. "This rise followed a 2.2 percent year-over-year increase in March." Regionally, "year-over-year price increases in the Atlantic provinces were among the highest in the country," the report said.