By Promit Mukherjee

OTTAWA (Reuters) -Canada’s annual inflation rate in October eased to 2.2% as gasoline prices dropped, food prices eased and mortgage interest costs came down below the 3% mark, data showed on Monday.

The removal of a carbon levy on gasoline this year continued to depress yearly price increases for the past few months. Barring the carbon levy removal, annual consumer price index rose by 2.7% in October from 2.9% in September, Statistics Canada said.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast the inflation to be at 2.1% for October, down from 2.4% in September. On a monthly basis, they forecast inflation to be 0.2%.

On a monthly basis, CPI inflation was in line with forecasts, StatsCan data showed.

The Bank of Canada has cited stable inflation as one of the prime reason

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