Bank of Canada Update

OTTAWA -- The Bank of Canada is holding its key interest rate at 0.25 per cent in response to what it calls the "extremely uncertain" economic outlook from the COVID-19 pandemic, and plans to keep it there until the picture improves.

In its updated outlook, the bank said Wednesday it expects the economy to contract by 7.8 per cent this year, driven downward by a year-over-year contraction of 14.6 per cent in the second quarter.

The report pegs the annual inflation rate at 0.6 per cent this year, rising to 1.2 per cent in 2021 and 1.7 per cent in 2022.

Its inflation target is 2 per cent, and the bank said in its policy statement it will maintain the current rate until that target is achieved.

The rate will have to stay low to provide "extraordinary monetary policy support" to help recuperate from the economic impact of COVID-19, it said.

The forecasts included in the Bank of Canada's monetary policy report also come with a caution that the numbers could be thrown off.

The bank's outlook is based on the assumption that there won't be a broad-based second wave of the pandemic, that lockdowns will be gradually lifted, and the pandemic will have run its course by mid-2022 thanks to a vaccine or effective treatment.

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