Bank of Canada holds key interest rate steady | FULL

Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem and Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Rogers addressed media on Wednesday morning following the central bank's decision on the target for the overnight rate, and the release of its quarterly monetary report.

The Bank of Canada left its benchmark interest rate unchanged on Wednesday, in keeping with expectations from economists.

"I would say the high-level message is that the outlook for growth has not changed very much. Growth came in a little bit weaker in the fourth quarter than we'd expected. It looks like it's going to be stronger in the first quarter than we expected in January. We're expecting pretty weak growth for the rest of the year, something a little less than one per cent," Macklem said.

The decision to keep its key policy rate at 4.5 per cent in its second consecutive meeting comes after a year of rapid rate hikes aimed at taming inflation.

The Bank of Canada said in January that it would adopt a pause in its rate increases as long as inflation continued to decline according to its forecast. But, the central bank warned in a statement that it remains prepared to raise interest rates again “if needed” to bring inflation back down to its two per cent target.

In a separate monetary policy report released alongside the rate decision Wednesday, the Bank of Canada said its forecast for inflation to cool to around three per cent by the middle of this year.