Statistics Canada is set to release September inflation data on Tuesday and economists are expecting that the country’s inflation rate kept fairly steady last month.

Jimmy Jean, vice president, chief economist and strategist at Desjardins, predicts September inflation to remain unchanged from August’s four per cent.

 “We’re expecting 3.5 per cent. That would be the lowest since November 2021,” Jean told BNN Bloomberg in a Monday television interview.

Jean also predicted that the three-month annualized rates of the Bank of Canada’s core inflation measures will remain in the four to 4.5 per cent range.

“This is going to be a protracted decline,” he said. “We saw that in the U.S. as well with the numbers coming in stronger than expected, but we don’t have inflation going back to the target until the back end of 2024.”

Derek Holt, vice president with Scotiabank Economics, is predicting a hike of two-tenths of a percentage month-over-month for the seasonally unadjusted headline rate.

“When a lot of industries, companies will roll out new seasonal lines for things going into the fall winter, there's a positive seasonal adjustment factor to that,” he told BNN Bloomberg.ca in a television interview Monday. “I think the seasonally adjusted, CPI will be up four or five-tenths month-over-month.”

If Holt is correct, he expects the Bank of Canada to issue another rate hike later this month.

A report from RBC Economics predicted the forthcoming StatCan data would show Canada’s headline consumer price index fell to 3.8 per cent year-over-year in September, a drop from four per cent in August.

RBC economists Nathan Janzen and Carrie Freestone cited a dip in gas prices and slowing food price growth in their outlook for improving inflation numbers, though they predicted price growth excluding food and energy would come in at 3.3 per cent, above the Bank of Canada’s target.

Their report also predicted a retail sales dip of 0.3 per cent with a decline in auto sales driving most of the slowdown, while they expected manufacturing sales would see a one-per-cent climb.

CIBC Capital Markets chief economist Avery Shenfeld, meanwhile, predicted inflation figures would climb slightly to 4.1 per cent year-over-year.

“Although (gas prices) ended the month broadly flat relative to August, because they fell sharply last September, they will still exert upward pressure on the year-over-year reading this time around,” Shenfeld wrote in his Monday report.

Shenfeld agreed with RBC economists’ view that Canadians could see a dip in prices excluding food and energy, as travel and restaurant demand wanes, though mortgage interest rates will keep inflation higher.

His report also predicted inflation would drop in October and hit the Bank of Canada’s target of two per cent by the middle of 2024.

September inflation data is expected to be released on Tuesday.

Statistics Canada’s inflation report and Monday’s Bank of Canada business outlook survey are key tools for the Bank of Canada’s next interest rate decision on Oct. 25.