In recent media coverage about the Bank of Canada’s (BoC) latest rate hike, Chief Economist Charles St-Arnaud was asked to comment on what the decision means. In interviews with the Ottawa Citizen and BNN Bloomberg, St-Arnaud noted that the BoC is not done with rate hikes, but merely proceeding with caution to fight inflation. He said:
The key message in today’s decision is that the central bank remains committed to fighting inflation and is not yet done hiking interest rates. However, the (Bank of Canada) also signals that the pace of hikes will slow and that the amount of hikes required is becoming more data-dependent.
Today’s decision supports our view that the (Bank of Canada) will continue hiking. As such, we believe that interest rates will likely increase by another 25 basis points at the December meeting. However, the risk is that they could increase by more if inflation does not show further signs of abating.”