CITIGROUP economist Veronica Clark says September headline and core CPI undershot expectations, making a near-term BOC rate hike hard to justify and undermining the bank’s data-driven policy stance. Annual CPI rose to 3.1% but the increase was almost entirely due to gasoline; food inflation was unexpectedly muted. Clark expects demand weakness amid excess supply to keep price pressures subdued and forecasts policy rates will remain on hold for the rest of the year.