The Financial Post reports in its Tuesday edition that Canada's inflation rate slowed to 1.8 per cent in February, down from 2.3 per cent in January, as the end of the GST/HST holiday a year earlier caused headline inflation to decelerate. The Post's Jane Switzer writes that in its latest consumer price index (CPI) report released Monday, Statistics Canada said the temporary sales tax exemption, which ended on Feb. 15, 2025, "resulted in monthly price increases for affected products in that month, which put downward pressure on year-over-year price change in February 2026." Economists had expected an inflation rate of 1.9 per cent. Even with deceleration from the base-year effect, the price of food purchased from restaurants rose 7.8 per cent year-over-year. Prices for food purchased from stores rose 4.1 per cent compared with a year earlier, down from 4.8 per cent in January. RBC senior economist Claire Fan said in a note, "While the moderation in those core CPI measures is welcome as it suggests easing demand-driven inflation pressure, Canadian households continue to face supply-side headwinds, particularly in grocery items like beef and coffee where production disruptions from adverse weather take time to resolve."