The central bank is set to announce its next interest rate decision on Wednesday. The announcement will be accompanied with updated economic projections for growth and inflation in its quarterly monetary policy report.
“When we combine all these things together, it certainly looks like the bank is likely to hold rates steady for now,” Porter said.Story continues below advertisement After contracting slightly in December, real gross domestic product grew by 0.5 per cent in January. Statistics Canada’s preliminary estimate suggests the economy grew again in February by 0.3 per cent.
“Some of the strength that we see in GDP seems to be the unwinding of some supply disruptions, which is actually a good thing for inflation,” Charbonneau said.Meanwhile, businesses keep hiring. In March, the Canadian economy added 35,000 jobs, bringing the total number of jobs gained over the last six months to almost 350,000.The unemployment rate also held steady at five per cent for the fourth consecutive month. That’s just above the all-time low of 4.9 per cent reached in the summer.
Raise rates