The Bank of Canada begins reducing its key interest rate by reducing it from 5% to 4.75%

“The Governing Council agreed that monetary policy no longer needed to be so restrictive and therefore lowered the policy rate by 25 basis points,” said Governor Tiff Macklem. Recent data has reinforced our confidence that inflation will continue to move towards the 2% target. »

The downward movement in interest rates, widely expected by financial markets and most economists, comes at just the right time for the 44% of Canadian mortgage holders who must renew their loans in the coming months.

Between 2022 and 2023, the central bank increased its key rate eight times to curb inflation which peaked at more than 8% in June 2023. Since then, the Consumer Price Index has fallen and was 2.7 % in April, the date of the last Statistics Canada reading.

More details to come.