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At the end of 2021 we expected that the Bank of Canada would raise interest rates between 7 and 8 times in 2022, however, with their January 26 announcement that may not be the case.
In 2021 the Bank of Canada indicated that the hikes would likely come in the middle of the year but with Statistics Canada reporting the highest rate of inflation in the past 30 years (4.8%!!), economists are predicting the hikes may occur earlier than planned.
The Big 6 banks (TD, BMO, NA, CIBC, RBC, and Scotiabank) expect the policy interest rate, also known as the overnight rate, to rise by approximately 1% by the end of 2022. This would indicate four .25 interest rate hikes by the Bank of Canada.
During the January 26 announcement the policy interest rate remained at 0.25%. We can expect another announcement from the Bank of Canada regarding the overnight rate on March 2, 2022.
As of February 2, 2022 five of the Big 6 Banks are reporting the following interest rates. Rates are provided by RateHub.ca
