The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday, Aug. 2, edition that corporate markups had little impact on inflation in Canada over the past three years, says new research by economists at the Bank of Canada that challenges the notion that runaway prices were driven by business profiteering. The Globe's Mark Rendell writes that the research, published Tuesday, found that markups -- the difference between the production cost of a good or service and its selling price -- rose early in the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the growth in markups slowed in 2021 and declined in 2022 as inflation soared to a four-decade high. BOC researchers wrote: "Our estimates suggest that markup growth accounted for less than one-tenth of inflation in 2021. Furthermore, by 2022, when inflation reached its highest levels in recent history, growth in markups was near zero or negative. ... The fact that markup growth was not aligned with the dynamics of inflation indicates that the recent rise in inflation was driven primarily by changes in costs rather than by firms leveraging their market power to increase prices." Loblaw and its rivals have drawn intense political ire for reporting bumper profits at a time when prices are rising fast.