Bank of Canada Announcement on Interest Rates Sounds a Hawkish Note

The Bank of Canada announced today that, while it was maintaining the interest rate at the effective lower bound of 0.25%, it was ending its quantitative easing (QE) program and moving to "reinvestment only" - purchasing Government of Canada bonds solely to replace maturing bonds. The Bank also reduced its Canadian GDP growth forecast to 5.1% for 2021 and 4.3% for 2022, with a slightly increased growth rate of 3.7% for 2023. It is now forecasting that economic slack will be taken up "in the middle quarters of 2022", opening the door for an increase in the bank rate as soon as April; this is earlier than previously called for. You can read the announcement here.