Canadian grocery price inflation slowed for the fourth consecutive month in October, according to Statistics Canada’s latest Consumer Price Index (CPI), released Tuesday.

Grocery prices grew by 5.4 per cent year-over-year, following a rise of 5.8 per cent in the September CPI.

Statistics Canada said that despite the deceleration, prices remain “at elevated levels.”

“While deceleration continued to be broad-based, fresh vegetables contributed the most to the slowdown,” the agency said in its CPI report.

Overall, the October CPI rose 3.1 per cent year-over-year, beating estimates from many economists and following a 3.8 per cent gain in September.

“The largest contributors to the year-over-year CPI increase continued to be mortgage interest cost, food purchased from stores and rent,” Statistics Canada said in the report.

‘BROAD-BASED DECELERATION’

Statistics Canada found food price growth fell in most categories for the month compared to its September print, according to the report.

Some food items saw modest decreases, such as preserved fruit, which fell from 10.5 per cent in September to 10.4 per cent, and dairy products, which fell from 4.0 per cent to 3.5 per cent.

Meanwhile, month-over-month price growth on other items such as fresh vegetables and seafood fell more than two percentage points.

Mike von Massow, professor of food agriculture and resource economics at the University of Guelph, told BNNBloomberg.ca last month that heading into winter, Canadians can expect to see some food items get more expensive due to the seasonal element of grocery pricing.

He said shoppers can mitigate the higher prices by adjusting their purchasing habits based on what’s in season, adding that “root vegetables and storable things are cheap all winter, and you can take advantage of it.”