Fans of the original Star Wars film released in 1977 will know the line “stay on target.” Two Rebel fighters are trying to destroy the Death Star by firing torpedoes at a tiny exhaust port. One of the pilots repeats the phrase “stay on target,” but they both get shot down by Darth Vader.

This is not exactly what has been going on in the battle against high inflation in Canada, but it speaks to how difficult it is to keep the pace of price growth on target.

With that in mind, this morning’s inflation report shows that the national inflation rate ticked up from 1.6% in September to land exactly on the 2.0% target in October. The notoriously volatile gasoline component of the inflation index explains most of the increase.

By first raising its trendsetting policy interest rate and then beginning to slowly lower it, the Bank of Canada has been able to help keep monthly consumer price growth under 3% since January. This works out to an average inflation rate of 2.5% over the first 10 months of the year—not quite a bullseye, but pretty good.

To get a sense of what’s next for price growth, we look at the “core” readings, of which there are several. The most basic core reading excludes food and energy and was lower in October, falling a tenth of percentage point to 2.3%. The core measures preferred by the Bank of Canada, however, increased and, while not necessarily setting off alarm bells, may be enough to convince the Bank that a 25-basis point interest rate cut on December 11 (the next fixed rate announcement date) is more prudent than a repeat of the 50-point cut it made last month.

In Alberta, the inflation rate increased from 1.9% in September to 3.0% in October. The higher rate and larger increase in Alberta can be generally attributed to stronger population and economic growth in the province putting more upward pressure on prices.

Back to Star Wars: Luke Skywalker ends up hitting the target and destroying the Death Star. He does so by relying more on intuition (and the mysterious Force) than his fighter’s targeting computer.

The Bank of Canada has made it clear it is keeping its targeting computers on (i.e., taking a data-dependent approach to interest rate changes), but given all the economic (not to mention geopolitical) variables affecting the inflation rate, some intuition (and if not the Force, then luck) might also be needed to adjust monetary policy in just the right way and the right time to stay on target.

Answer to the previous trivia question: Cross-docking is a logistics process where products from suppliers or manufacturers are directly transferred to a customer with minimal to no storage time in between.

Today’s trivia question: In which U.S. state will you find the head office of The Home Depot?