The Bank of Canada raised its benchmark interest rate to 5 percent on Wednesday, the highest rate since 2001.
Highest rate since 2001
Jenna Benchetrit · CBC news ·
The Bank of Canada building is pictured in Ottawa in late 2022. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
The Bank of Canada raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points on Wednesday, the first time since April 2001 that the figure reached 5 percent.
The move was expected by economists after Statistics Canada released its June labor force survey last week, which showed Canada added 60,000 jobs last month – further contributing to an overheated economy.
Wednesday’s rate hike marks the 10th by the central bank since March 2022. Those January hikes were paused for a few months to determine if the economy had cooled enough, before resuming the campaign in June.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jenna Benchetrit is a web and radio journalist for CBC News. She mainly works with the animation team and occasionally writes corporate and general assignment stories. Jenna lives in Toronto and has a master’s degree in journalism from Toronto Metropolitan University. You can reach her at jenna.benchetrit@cbc.ca.
