The Financial Post reports in its Wednesday, April 17, edition that Canada's inflation rate ticked up in March but stayed within the Bank of Canada's target, firming up the case for a June interest rate cut. The Post's Denise Paglinawan writes that the consumer price index rose 2.9 per cent year over year in March, up from 2.8 per cent in February, according to Statistics Canada data released on Tuesday. Analysts had expected inflation to rise between 2.9 and 3 per cent. Canadian Chamber of Commerce economist Andrew Dicapua said in response to the data release, "We're almost there, with just one more step to go." He said gasoline prices mainly drove the acceleration in headline inflation, as prices at the pump rose faster in March than in February. Excluding gasoline, the all-items CPI slowed to a 2.8 per cent year-over-year increase, down from a 2.9-per-cent gain in the prior month, it said. Mortgage interest cost and rent indexes pushed the year-over-year gain in the all-items CPI. CIBC economist Andrew Grantham says, "For a central bank trying to judge if downward momentum in core inflation has been maintained before it's next policy decision, today's release was a case of one down, one to go."