Today, the BoC made their first interest rate decision of 2023 by raising its policy rate to 4.50%, an increase of 0.25%.
This is the highest the BoC’s key rate has been since 2007.
Today’s decision marks the 8th consecutive time the BoC has raised the overnight lending rate, hiking the benchmark rate a full 4.25% since January 2022.
Headline inflation has cooled down from a high of 8.10% in mid 2022 down to 6.30% in December 2022.
Core inflation is around 5% and dropping, suggesting that core inflation has peaked, according to the BoC.
Canadians are still feeling the hardships of inflation in their essential household expenses with persistent price increases in food and shelter.
The BoC estimates that the economy grew by 3.6% in 2022 and predict GDP growth of 1% in 2023 and 2% in 2024.
In their press release of today, the BoC expects to hold the overnight lending rate at its current level while it assesses the impact of the increases to date.
The BoC is committed to get core inflation (CPI) to around 3% by the middle of 2023 and back to its 2% target by 2024.
Please reach out to us should you wish to talk about your current mortgage and/or your upcoming renewal, refinance or purchase.
The next scheduled date for announcing the overnight rate target is March 8, 2023.
Watch Video Warm regards, Keith Baker | kpbaker@shaw.ca | 604.723.5363 Jackie Zerbe | jacqueline@totalmortgage.ca | 604.724.6982 TotalMortgage.ca (@TotalMortgage.ca)