Bank of Canada (BoC). Key Rates Hold at Their Effective Lower Bound

The Monetary Policy Report released by the BoC does not contain a specific economic and financial outlook due to the high degree of uncertainty. The range mentioned by the BoC for the decline in real GDP in the first quarter (non-annualized), that is, between -1% and -3%, is in line with the -2.6% that Statistics Canada reported today for the period. Annualized, the pullback during the first quarter could therefore settle at around -10% according to Statistics Canada.