The Bank of Canada today increased its target for the overnight rate to 4½%, with the Bank Rate at 4¾% and the deposit rate at 4½%. The Bank is also continuing its policy of quantitative tightening. Global inflation remains high and broad-based. Inflation is coming down in many countries, largely reflecting lower energy prices as well as improvements in global supply chains. In the United States and Europe, economies are slowing but proving more resilient than was expected at the time of the Bank’s October Monetary Policy Report (MPR). China’s abrupt lifting of COVID-19 restrictions has prompted an upward revision to ... (full story)

The Bank of Canada (BoC) announced another rate hike on Wednesday, increasing its overnight lending rate by another 25 basis points. This marks the eighth straight rate hike from the BoC since March of last year, part of the central bank’s fight against soaring inflation, and brings the policy rate to 4.5%. The rate hike comes just one week after Statistics Canada announced another decline — albeit a small one — in the country’s inflation rate. In December, inflation hit 6.3%, down from Novembers 6.8% and October’s 6.9%. But as several economists and major banks predicted, the small declines were not enough to stop ... (full story)