Canada annual inflation rate stays at 3.1% in November

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's annual inflation rate held at 3.1% in November, as higher prices for travel tours offset lower price growth for food and declining prices for cellular services, Statistics Canada said on Tuesday.

This missed analysts' expectations for annual inflation to fall to 2.9%.

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COMMENTARY

ROYCE MENDES, DIRECTOR & HEAD OF MACRO STRATEGY AT DESJARDINS

"Today's report represents less progress in taming inflation than we had expected. That said, there are still a number of signs pointing to a further normalization in underlying price pressures."

"Bond yields are rising as some of the most aggressive bets on rate cuts are getting pared back. However, we are retaining our forecast that the Bank of Canada has enough evidence in hand to begin trimming rates in April 2024."

MICHAEL GREENBERG, SVP AND PORTFOLIO MANAGER, FRANKLIN TEMPLETON INVESTMENT SOLUTIONS

"The release came in a bit stickier than expected."

"The Bank (of Canada) has acknowledged that rates are likely to move lower as their next step but they need to see more than one or two months of better data, they need to see a number of months of deceleration before cutting. That suggests those rate cuts are still a little bit of a ways off and the market might be getting ahead of itself a little bit as far as what they expect from rate."

(Reporting by Fergal Smith; Editing by Denny Thomas)