No Change to Rates at BoC Meeting

The Bank of Canada left its key lending rate at 0.25%…as pretty much the whole world expected.

Not much changed from the BoC’s last announcement in October.  In its statement today it said:

• “The target overnight rate can be expected to remain at its current level until the end of the second quarter of 2010.”
• “While significant fragilities remain, global economic developments have been slightly more positive and the global outlook has improved modestly…”
• “The Bank continues to expect…inflation to return to the 2% target in the second half of 2011.”
• “The overall risks to (the Bank of Canada’s) inflation projection are tilted slightly to the downside.”

The Bank of Canada’s main focus, of course, is controlling inflation.  There has been nowhere near enough strong economic news for it to consider raising rates—nor do economists expect any for a while to come. 

The next BoC interest rate meeting is January 19, 2010.

5-year bond yields, which impact 5-year fixed mortgage rates, were down 0.04% after the Bank’s announcement.