A Canadian executive in trucking and logistics said he thinks high inflation is last year’s story.

Murray Mullen, chairman and CEO at Mullen Group, said in a television interview with BNN Bloomberg that he is seeing less inflation among clients at his firm, who were over purchasing goods over the last few years to contend with supply chain issues.

“I think inflation is a yesterday story. I do not see inflation anymore,” he said on Monday.

“There might be in certain pockets of the economy, but in terms of the supply chain and dealing with our customers, no way. Inflation is a ‘21-22 story.”

He made the comments a day before Statistics Canada released inflation data for December.

Headline inflation dropped to 6.3 per cent, slightly lower than the forecasted 6.4 per cent, while core inflation remained at around five per cent.

The decrease was largely driven by gasoline prices, while food prices remained high.

Mullen said his group’s clients had been willing to pay any price to get around supply chain challenges in 2021 and 2022, creating a “bottleneck in the system.”

Their approach to business has changed now that they have “too much inventory in the system,” Mullen said, and as consumers change their purchasing habits to be “cost conscious.”

He said he is basing his assessment of “way less inflation” compared to last year on his company’s figures.

“It’s going to be way more price competitive than it was last year,” Mullen said. “It’s certainly different on a year-over-year.”

Mullen said he anticipates a weaker economy in the year ahead now that the effects of higher central bank interest rates have set in and begun to slow growth.

“(2023) is still going to be a good year, but the conditions are not quite as robust as they were in ’22,” he said.