Consumer prices rose 1.9% in January from a year earlier, accelerating from a 1.8% pace the month before, mostly due to increases in energy costs, according to data this week from Statistics Canada.

Gasoline prices jumped 8.3% from a year earlier, following a 3.5% increase in December, the agency said. That offset the effects of the government’s temporary tax relief program on food and other items, which saw restaurant costs decrease more than 5% and alcohol down 3.6%.

Still, movements in the core rate suggest underlying inflation is no longer improving and in fact is grinding higher, with each of the four main measures rising faster in the past six months than in the half year before that, according to Doug Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets.

“While the Bank obviously has a lot to deal with amid the many tariff threats, the inflation backdrop alone would suggest it may be time for at least a brief pause,” Porter wrote in a research note.

The central bank’s next rate announcement is scheduled for March 12.

The three-month annualized trend of core inflation has been tracking above 3%, a signal that it should continue to move higher, James Orlando, senior economist at TD Economics, wrote in a commentary.

He said the Bank of Canada is in a difficult position. “Does it weigh the downside risks to the economy in the face of U.S. tariffs, or does it focus on recent economic strength and the impact this is having on inflation?”

According to Orlanda, markets are calling for another 25 basis point rate cut from the central bank at the next meeting, though traders were paring those bets after the release of the CPI data.

On a month-over-month basis, the Consumer Price Index rose 0.1% in January, in line with consensus expectations and compared with a 0.4% decline in December.