On December 7, the Bank of Canada (the Bank) announced that it will be maintaining its overnight rate at 0.5%, closing out a year of historically low interest rates. The overnight rate is the interest rate at which large institutions, including banks, lend money amongst themselves and is one of the main levers that the … Continue reading
The term “negative interest rates” was introduced into the Canadian vocabulary on December 8, 2015, when the Bank of Canada announced that it would be willing to use this “unconventional monetary policy tool” in the event of economic crisis. With the current benchmark interest rate of 0.5% already near historic lows, this announcement suggests that … Continue reading