Inflation data shows an interest rate pause is expected, economist says
BNN Bloomberg
Canada’s surprise softening inflation data shows Canadians could be in for an extended period of flat interest rates, at least one economist suggests.
On Tuesday, Statistics Canada revealed Canada’s consumer price index for September came in at 3.8 per cent, down 0.1 per cent from August and beating economists’ expectations.
Veronica Clark, an economist with Citi, believes the latest data will compel the Bank of Canada to pause rate hikes during its decision next week, and could continue a pause for the foreseeable future.
“The August data that we had about a month ago had been much stronger,” she told BNN Bloomberg in a television interview Wednesday. “It looked very genuinely concerning. So I had been expecting that maybe the Bank of Canada would be hiking one more time but that looks a little bit less concerning after some revisions that we got yesterday.”
