The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that inflation in Canada held steady in May while underlying price pressures eased slightly. The Globe's Mark Rendell writes that this could allay concerns at the Bank of Canada about an acceleration in core inflation caused by the trade war with the United States. The Consumer Price Index rose at an annual rate of 1.7 per cent last month, Statistics Canada said Tuesday. This was the same as in April and in line with Bay Street forecasts. Rent, food prices and mortgage interest costs all saw smaller annual increases in May compared with the prior month. Gasoline prices were sharply lower year-over-year as a result of the removal of the carbon tax in April, although gas prices increased month-to-month. Importantly for the Bank of Canada, gauges of underlying price pressures retreated slightly, with the central bank's two preferred measures of core inflation both falling to 3 per cent from 3.1 per cent the prior month. "The BoC will likely need to see much more improvement before it's convinced that underlying inflation is headed back to 2 per cent," BMO chief economist Douglas Porter said in a note. Rent prices rose 4.5 per cent in May, down from 5.2 per cent in April.