BoC Interest Rate Announcement - Same As It Ever Was

The Bank of Canada announced its overnight lending rate today and, to no one's surprise, it remains at 0.25%. The announcement reaffirms the Bank will not raise the rate until current economic slack is absorbed, sometime in the middle quarters of 2022. For interest rate doves, the BoC did acknowledge that the future course of the Omicron variant, high interest rates, and supply chain disruptions (especially due to the recent flooding in BC) could weigh on economic growth and cause them to maintain the current overnight rate at its current level until later in 2022. The Bank also notes that, in spite of high employment and decreasing unemployment, GDP still remains 1.5% below pre-pandemic levels. You can read the text of the BoC announcement here.