Carney Keeps Rate-Increase Bias And Chops Canada Forecast

Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney kept unchanged both his policy interest rate and his bias to tighten, even as he chopped his growth forecast for 2013 and said economic slack will persist for more than two years.

Policy makers in Ottawa held the benchmark rate on overnight loans between commercial banks at 1 percent for the 21st consecutive meeting today, as expected by all 23 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. The bank also cut its growth outlook for this year to 1.5 percent from 2 percent because of lower business investment and government spending.