Economic forecasts suggest the Bank of Canada will likely lower its key policy rate by a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday in light of recent inflation and jobs data, bringing it down to three percent.
The quarter-point cut would mark a slowdown from the central bank’s two previous supersized cuts. It slashed its key rate by half a percentage point in October and December as inflation hovered at or below its two percent target.
Canada’s annual inflation rate fell to 1.8 percent in December, largely on the back of the federal government’s temporary GST tax break.
“(With) inflation data, we saw all the numbers coming down, so that is a positive sign,” said Tu Nguyen, an economist at RSM Canada….