C.D. Howe council urges Bank of Canada to keep rates on hold until March 2014

TORONTO – The C.D. Howe Institute’s monetary policy council is recommending the Bank of Canada keep its target for the overnight rate on hold for the next year.

The institute’s monetary policy council is urging the central bank to not only keep the target at one per cent at its next announcement on March 6, but also hold it there through to March 2014.

The Bank of Canada has kept its key interest rate to one per cent since September 2010.

The central bank is widely expected by economists to keep rates on hold when it makes its next announcement, but just when it will next raise rates is less clear.

Earlier this year, governor Mark Carney declared that the need to raise borrowing costs was “less imminent” and the bank shaved its projections for economic growth.

However, Carney has said he believes the next move by the bank, when it comes, will be to raise rates.