Business Immigration to Canada: The Bank of Canada announced on the 9th that it will maintain the benchmark interest rate at 0.5%.
The Bank of Canada stated that the economic performance is in line with previous expectations, with the core inflation rate approaching the target level of 2%. Factors such as the depreciation of the Canadian dollar are offsetting the deflationary pressures caused by weak economic growth.
The Bank of Canada indicated that the effects of the previously implemented monetary policy easing are becoming evident. On July 15, the Bank of Canada lowered the benchmark interest rate from 0.75% to 0.5%, marking the second rate cut of the year, while expecting economic growth in the third quarter.
However, on the 9th, the Bank of Canada stated that due to the decline in prices of international commodities such as oil, the resource sector of the Canadian economy will face a "complex and prolonged" adjustment, but growth in housing consumption and the recovery of the U.S. economy provide support for the Canadian economy.
The decision to maintain the interest rate unchanged aligns with market expectations. On the 9th, TD Bank released a report predicting that the Canadian economy is expected to grow by 2.5% year-on-year in the second half of this year, but also expressed concerns about the trends in international commodity prices, not ruling out the possibility of further rate cuts by the central bank in the future.
In the first and second quarters of this year, the Canadian economy experienced consecutive negative growth, indicating that it has entered a "technical recession." Data released by Statistics Canada on the 4th showed that the unemployment rate slightly increased month-on-month in August, rising from 6.8% to 7%.