OTTAWA—The Bank of Canada increased its key interest rate by 50 basis points (half a  percentage point) to 3.75 percent on October 26, maintaining that inflation is still too high.
The BoC has now raised its overnight rate target by 3.5 percentage points since March and the October rate hike marks the sixth consecutive time the BoC has raised rates this year.
“The Governing Council expects that the policy interest rate will need to rise further,” the bank said in its press release.
The bank reiterated that it expects inflation will return to the 2 percent target by the end of 2024.
Regarding the chance of a recession—two straight quarters of negative economic growth—the BoC said that, toward the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, it is just as likely as having a small amount of positive growth during that period….