Report: Canada inflation hits four-decade high, worse yet to come

Canada’s inflation rate has probably hit its highest level in nearly 40 years, with experts warning Canadians to be prepared as it gets worse.

A Bloomberg survey of economists based on official data due to be released next week showed that inflation was on track to hit 7.3 percent in Canada.

That would be the highest inflation rate since 1983.

Experts warned the Canadians that economic problems will continue for the time being with no solution in near sight.

Bank of Canada experts, who confirmed that the inflation rate will continue to go up in near future, predicted that interest rates will likely go up as well, reaching near 3 percent.

Canada's interest rate is presently 1.5 percent after being held at an emergency low of 0.25 percent until March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Bank of Canada most recently raised its key rate by a half a percentage point, the second time in the past few months, bringing it in June to 1.5 percent .

Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem has announced his preparedness to increase the interest rates even “more forcefully” if the high inflation rate persists.

Craig Wright, chief economist with RBC, told CityNews that the central bank will continue raising interest rates to bring down inflation.

However, he warned that the situation would continue to get worse as Canadians went through next year.

Amid the unharnessed inflation and rising interest rates, Canada's Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, who hails from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party of Canada, detailed the government's plan to “help make life more affordable for millions of Canadians.”

Speaking at Toronto's Empire Club on Thursday, Freeland delivered her keynote speech about the current situation of Canada's economy and the government's control plans to deal with it.

In her speech, Freeland cited the “Affordability Plan,” which she referred to as government measures adding up to $8.9 billion.

She said that money had been allocated to new plans aimed to support Canadians in 2022.

However, all the measures she mentioned in her plan to tackle the present inflation had been previously announced in the past two federal budgets and were now taking effect.

Freeland also linked inflation to Russia’s operation in Ukraine, copying US commerce secretary Gina Raimondo.

Scapegoat: US govt. officials blame Russia for economic woes at home

US President Joe Biden’s commerce secretary Gina Raimondo has sought to pin the blame for the country

US President Joe Biden’s administration has been seeking to pin the blame for the country's growing economic woes on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Meanwhile, record gasoline and diesel prices in Canada and elsewhere due to disruptions to Russian oil supplies have led to soaring inflation described by Freeland as a “global phenomenon”.

The Conservative Party, however, criticized Freeland for trying to blame Russia for their own policy mistakes.

Freeland’s speech “demonstrates a fundamental lack of understanding of the causes of inflation,” noted finance and industry critics, MPs Dan Albas and Gerard Deltell.

The Liberals “continue to blame global factors for inflation and refuse to provide the immediate relief to the cost-of-living crisis that Canadians need,” they said in a joint statement on Thursday.

“This flawed economic approach eats away at the earnings of hard-working Canadians and ignores the most basic principle of economics: that spending during an inflationary crisis will only fuel inflation further,” the statement also said.

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