TD Economics forecasts no Variable rate hike til 2012

This week, TD Economics said the Bank of Canada probably won’t raise rates til 2012.   How quickly things can change.  Just a few months ago, most Economists and Financial Experts were calling for the Bank of Canada to raise rates this summer.. some said as early as May… Well, that didn’t happen.

There are many reasons but TD’s Chief Economist, Craig Alexander, said it was low inflationary expectations, the negative impact on the European financial instability (Greece, Ireland, Spain, Portugal) and the high $Canadian dollar.  We can also through in Japan’s Tsunami and the Middle East political uprising.

Fixed rates have also not gone up as the Economists were forecasting earlier this year.  Instead, they have come back down to historical lows, once again… The Bond market affects fixed rates and we’ve seen the 5 year Canadian Bond drop 80 basis points since mid April.

All this is great news for borrowers as there appears to be little pressure to raise interest rates anytime soon.