News Analysis
Small businesses are acutely affected by the Bank of Canada’s rapid interest rate increases, as they are carrying more debt than usual due to the pandemic in addition to numerous other challenges they face. 
“It’s like a perfect storm right now in so many ways,” Catherine Swift, president of the Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers and Businesses of Canada, told The Epoch Times.
The Bank of Canada said it is front-loading its rate hikes, but Swift said it procrastinated in starting the rate-hike cycle. Financial markets were caught off-guard when the BoC didn’t raise rates back in January and some economists have said the BoC should have started raising rates in late 2021….