OTTAWA—After the Bank of Canada announced a pause on interest rate hikes in January, it continued to stay true to its word on April 12 by holding its overnight rate target at 4.5 percent, which was widely expected. Forecasts for much weaker but still positive economic growth were shifted further into the future after a robust first quarter of 2023.
The BoC’s inflation outlook for 2023 and 2024 remained broadly unchanged, but there is no longer any talk of economic growth stalling through the first half of 2023, as there was in January. However, the bank says that after a stronger-than-expected first quarter, growth will average less than 1 percent for the rest of 2023….