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Bank of Canada maintains overnight rate at 1/4 percent

March 18, 2010 by  
Filed under Recent News

March 2nd, 2010

Here is an extract of the Bank of Canada’s announcement of this morning….

‘The Bank of Canada today announced that it is maintaining its target for the overnight rate at 1/4 per cent. The Bank Rate is unchanged at 1/2 per cent and the deposit rate is 1/4 per cent.

The ongoing global economic recovery is being driven largely by strong domestic demand growth in many emerging-market economies and supported in advanced economies by exceptional monetary and fiscal stimulus, as well as extraordinary measures taken to support financial systems. The level of economic activity in Canada has been slightly higher than the Bank had projected in its January Monetary Policy Report (MPR). The economy grew at an annual rate of 5 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2009, spurred by vigorous domestic spending and further recovery in exports.

The underlying factors supporting Canada’s recovery are largely unchanged – policy stimulus, increased confidence, improved financial conditions, global growth, and higher terms of trade. At the same time, the persistent strength of the Canadian dollar and the low absolute level of U.S. demand continue to act as significant drags on economic activity in Canada.’
In Benjamin Tal’s (CIBC Senior Economist) Weekly Market Insight, he points out that any move by the Bank of Canada ahead of the Federal Reserve poses significant risks for Canada. Below, is an extract of some of the pertinent points which I thought you would find of interest:

‘This is a risky move given that both in 1992 and 2002 the Bank moved independently of the Fed, only to reverse the decision a few months later. The most likely scenario is that the Bank will move by 50-75 basis points and then will pause until 2011 and continue to hike alongside the Fed. The reason for the limited hike in 2010 is that the ongoing recovery in the Canadian economy will not be linear. The first two quarters of the year will be strong, reflecting fiscal stimulus from both sides of the border, a rebounding inventory cycle and strong credit growth in Canada. These factors, however, will fade in the second half of the year, with overall GDP growth expected to average less than 2% vs. more than 3% in the first half.

As for inflation, the Bank of Canada is projecting core inflation to reach its target rate of 2% by mid-2011. But the core rate has already reached 1.9% last month. Is the Bank of Canada wrong? The short answer is no. The 1.9% advance in the core rate reflects a very soft base period (rates are calculated on a year-over-year basis and January of 2009 saw a notable decline in prices). This means that the coming months will see a much lower inflation rate. The reality is that the underlying inflation rate in Canada is well below 1.5%. So we still have a lot of time until we reach the Bank’s target.’

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