A prolonged period of heightened interest rates will be critical to Canada’s central bank reaching its inflation target, a former Bank of Canada Governor said.
No sense of context. The BoC prime rate was right around 5% or higher from 1960 until 2008 or so. The all time high overnight rate was a bit over 18% in 1981 IIRC.
The rates are “high” now only relative to the record low rates we had prior to covid.
Inflation right now is at 2.8%, which is roughly in target, which I believe is between 1-3%.
We’re actually one of only a few countries that have managed to get inflation under control. I think there’s like 4 others so far, and we’re doing even better than the States at 3%.
Though immediately raising interest just because we reached the target would undo all the work we’ve put in so far, so I’m not surprised that we’ll have to wait a while before interest comes back down. That said, 2025 is definitely later than I had expected.
Anybody who complains about the interest rate not going down should be reminded of all the waves of people going to the hospitals two weeks after every time lockdowns stopped during COVID (and how high the infection rates are now that COVID is ‘officially over’). The second you let your guard down is the moment that everything goes to shit. Just because we’re under the speed limit doesn’t mean that the runaway engine has stopped, just that the brakes are working.
“Ouch!” - new home owners
