By www.CentralBankNews.info Canada’s central bank kept its target for the benchmark overnight rate steady at 1.0 percent, as widely expected, and said the current “considerable monetary stimulus currently in place will likely remain appropriate for a period of time, after which some modest withdrawal will likely be required.”
The Bank of Canada’s (BOC) statement signals that it is pushing back the time frame for a rate rise even further than currently expected, continuing its move since February toward a more neutral policy stance and reflecting another downward revision in its growth forecast.
In its latest Monetary Policy Report, the BOC forecasts annual average growth of 1.5 percent in 2013, down from a January forecast of 2.0 percent, 2.8 percent in 2014, up from a previous 2.7 percent, and 2.7 percent in 2015.
“The economy is expected to reach full capacity in mid-2015, later than previously anticipated,” the bank said in its policy report. In its January policy report, the BOC had expected the economy to reach full capacity in the second half of 2014.
Headline and core inflation is expected to remain subdued in coming quarters before gradually rising to the BOC’s 2 percent target by mid-2015, also later than it forecast in January when it expected inflation to return to its target in the second half of next year.