BoC kept overnight rate unchanged at 4.50% as widely expected. It reiterated the stance to hold policy rate at current level, “conditional on economic developments evolving broadly in line with the MPR outlook”. Nevertheless, BoC is “prepared to increase the policy rate further if needed.”
In the accompanying statement, BoC noted, “the latest data remains in line with the Bank’s expectation that CPI inflation will come down to around 3% in the middle of this year.”