Housing market resurgence could give Bank of Canada pause on rate cuts

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Most economists agree that it’s just a matter of time before the Bank of Canada cuts interest rates. But, as the bank prepares to unveil its latest rate decision on Wednesday, at least one is warning that the potential for a hot spring housing market and a stimulative federal budget could push the timeline for those cuts back to the fall.

While some economists have predicted a spring cut from the current five per cent overnight rate, Derek Holt, head of capital markets economics at Bank of Nova Scotia, said a trim in April “would be about the dumbest thing the central bank could do.”