The Bank of Canada in Ottawa. Photo by Justin Tang/The Canadian Press files

The slowing pace of decline in gasoline prices was the biggest contributor to Canada’s inflation rate rising to 1.9 per cent in August, Statistics Canada said Tuesday, while lower prices for travel tours and fresh fruit balanced acceleration in the all-items consumer price index (CPI).

Excluding food and energy, CPI rose by 2.4 per cent in August, down from 2.5 per cent in May, June and July.

Here’s what economists think about the latest inflation numbers and their impact on the Bank of Canada ’s next interest rate announcement on Sept. 17.

CPI ‘didn’t matter, but didn’t hurt either’: Scotiabank

“First, ignore headline CPI,” Derek Holt, vice president and head of capital markets economics at Bank of

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