Bank of Canada policy rate
The target for the overnight rate: the rate at which major financial institutions lend one another funds for one day. The Bank of Canada sets it on announced dates.
Daily (business days), delayed Observed 2026-11-05 · retrieved 2026-11-07 · Source: Bank of Canada · Not a live quote.
Bank of Canada policy rate over time
Daily observations. Use the period buttons to change the range; the table beneath the chart lists the values.
Bank of Canada policy rate
%.
Chart loads when it comes into view.
Latest values: Bank of Canada policy rate 2.5 (2026-11-05).
Related relationships: Bank of Canada policy rate · 8 relationships use this data as evidence
What this indicator is and why it is watched
What it measures
The target for the overnight rate: the rate at which major financial institutions lend one another funds for one day. The Bank of Canada sets it on announced dates.
Why it is watched
Other short-term rates, including prime and many variable-rate loans, are priced from it, so it sets the starting point for Canadian borrowing costs.
How it connects to the wider economy
Context, not a claim of cause.
Changes pass through to households and firms at different speeds: variable-rate borrowers see them quickly; fixed-rate mortgage borrowers mainly when they renew. Whether and how much that changes housing or investment is something to investigate with the evidence, not assume.
Northline describes relationships as documented mechanisms, statistical associations or hypotheses. Nothing on this page states that a movement in this indicator caused a movement in another.
How the data are produced
- Publisher
- Bank of Canada
- Dataset
- V39079
- Frequency
- Daily
- Unit
- %
- Observations
- 4,381 (long history)
- Retrieved
- 2026-11-07
- Series id
ca10_boc_policy_rate_d
A policy rate is set by a central bank; it is a decision, not a market price, so it changes in steps on announced dates and is carried forward between them.
Source: Bank of Canada, Target for the overnight rate (business daily) (V39079). Content reused under the Bank of Canada terms (https://www.bankofcanada.ca/terms/); changes: values unchanged.
Licence conditions: see source terms: https://www.bankofcanada.ca/terms/; attribution required.
Missing observations are left missing and are never interpolated. Statistical agencies can revise published values; the observation date and retrieval date above identify the version shown. Methodology and sources.
Take it into Intelligence Studio
Add this indicator to a workspace with related series and the recorded relationships.
Open Bank of Canada policy rate in Studio
Questions worth testing
- What has happened to Canadian housing starts after past changes in the policy rate?
- How closely does the 2-year yield follow the policy rate?
In Studio, the Scenarios tab can ask a what-if question about this indicator. Scenario Intelligence applies its usual checks: when there is too little history, the series are not comparable or the relationship is not stable, it reports “not enough evidence” rather than a number.