The Bank of Canada is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged this week for the sixth straight meeting.
Instead, economists say they will be watching the central bank’s accompanying statement and its latest Monetary Policy Report, in which it will reveal its updated economic forecasts.
While the Bank is forecast to leave its overnight target rate unchanged at 5.00%, where it’s been since July, markets and economists are growing more confident that the Bank will instead pull the trigger on its first rate cut at its subsequent meeting in June.
Bond markets are currently pricing in an 88% chance of a 25-basis-point rate cut at the June 5 meeting. Those odds increased over the weekend following last week’s March employment report, which saw the country’s unemployment rate jump three tenths of a percentage point to 6.1%.
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