Freeland touts previously announced measures to combat hot inflation

Amid stubbornly hot inflation and rising interest rates, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland detailed financial commitments to ``help make life more affordable for millions of Canadians'', but the measures were all previously announced.

Freeland delivered a keynote address about the state of the Canadian economy at the Empire Club of Canada in downtown Toronto on Thursday afternoon.

In her speech, Freeland highlighted the federal government's ``Affordability Plan,'' which she referred to as a suite of measures totalling $8.9 billion in new support for Canadians in 2022.

The measures were all included the past two federal budgets and are now taking effect.

Freeland called recent skyrocketing inflation a ``global phenomenon'' that is being driven by lasting impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, ongoing lockdowns in China and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Last month, Statistics Canada reported the inflation rate for April rose 6.8 per cent compared with a year ago.

That's the highest since January 1991.

The federal agency is expected to release May's inflation report next week.