Prices in B.C. rose 1.5% year-over-year in April after increasing just .1% in March compared with the year prior, representing the highest rate of acceleration among all the provinces.
The acceleration is mostly attributed to a 2.3% year-over-year rise in the price of food purchased at restaurants, according to a May 23 Statistics Canada report.
This comes after B.C. officially did away with the HST in April 2013 and reinstated the hybrid GST-PST system, allowing restaurants to only charge patrons 5% GST instead of 12% HST.
Canada itself is experiencing its biggest increase in inflation in the past two years as the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 2% between April 2013 and April 2014 following a 1.5% jump in March.
Energy prices led the year-over-year rise in CPI in April compared with March.
Prices were up 8.4% last month after rising 4.6% in March.
Gas prices rose 6.6% in April after a 1.4% increase in March, while natural gas went up 26% year-over-year last month. In March, natural gases prices were up 17.9%.
