Bank of Canada keeps benchmark interest rate unchanged, says epidemic shock seems to have peaked

　(Fighting against New Coronary Pneumonia) The Bank of Canada kept the benchmark interest rate unchanged and said the epidemic shock seems to have peaked

　　China News Agency, Toronto, June 3 (Reporter Yu Ruidong) The new Governor of the Bank of Canada, Tiff Macklem, took office on June 3, local time. In view of the dawn of the Canadian economy affected by the new crown epidemic, the Canadian central bank announced on the same day that it would maintain the benchmark interest rate, the overnight lending rate, at 0.25%.

　　The Bank of Canada said that although the way the economy recovers after the outbreak is still unclear, the impact of the outbreak on the economy seems to have peaked. Financial conditions have improved, and commodity prices have risen in recent weeks.

　　The Bank of Canada believes that although the epidemic has caused historical losses in Canada’s production and employment, it appears that the Canadian economy has avoided the worst-case scenario predicted by the Bank’s April monetary policy report. Although the outlook is still cloudy in the second half of the year, the Bank of Canada expects the country's economy to resume growth from the third quarter.

　　The Central Bank of Canada said that its plan to improve market functions has achieved the expected results. With the recovery of market functions and the lifting of restrictions, the central bank’s work will shift to supporting the recovery of output and employment growth.

　　The Canadian central bank also pointed out that due to the different pace of unblocking in different countries, the global economic recovery may take a long time and is not smooth.

　　In March this year, the Bank of Canada rarely cut interest rates three times in a row, lowering the benchmark interest rate from 1.75% to 0.25%.

　　Tiff McCrum is the tenth governor of the Bank of Canada and his term of office is 7 years. Prior to this, he served as Dean of the well-known University of Toronto Rotman School of Business. He entered the Canadian Central Bank as early as 1984 and served as the senior deputy governor of the central bank. His predecessor, Stephen Poloz, 65, announced at the end of last year that he would not seek re-election as central bank governor. Maintaining the interest rate this time is also the last decision Poloz made before leaving office.

　　Transport Canada announced new measures on the 3rd, requiring aviation, waterway, railway and land transportation practitioners to equip and use face masks and other epidemic prevention supplies. The guidelines issued by the department in mid-April only required passengers on all types of transportation to wear masks.

　　As of the evening of June 3, Eastern Time, the cumulative number of confirmed and suspected cases of new coronavirus infection in Canada was 93,063, 51,034 were recovered, and 7,497 were related deaths. (Finish)