Jagmeet Singh says there is ‘no merit’ to expected Bank of Canada interest rate hike via torontostar
Ahead of another steep interest rate hike expected later this week, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh is questioning whether the current slate of prescriptions to cure inflation has become unnecessarily punitive for average Canadians.
Economists are now expecting a second consecutive .75 percentage point hike from the Bank after September’s consumer price index was up 6.9 per cent year over year, a slowing but slightly worse than expected rate of annual inflation. That would put the target overnight lending rate at 4 per cent, where it hasn’t been since the 2008 financial crisis.
In his letter, Singh points out that workers’ wages haven’t kept up with persistent price increases in basic goods. Meanwhile, the causes of many of those increases — including the war in Ukraine, supply chain tangles, and “price hikes fuelled by corporate greed” — are out of Canadians’ control.