Global Markets: Bank of Canada expected to raise key interest rate

WINNIPEG – The following is a glance at the news moving markets in Canada and globally.

– The Bank of Canada (BoC) is widely expected to announce Wednesday it will raise its key interest rate by 50 basis points, for the first time since May 2000, to one per cent. It would be the first country in the G7 to raise its key interest rate that much. The larger-than-usual hike will be used to counter fast-rising inflation, which was reported to be 5.7 per cent year-by-year in February, according to Statistics Canada. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom’s rate of inflation rose to seven per cent year-by-year through March, the highest annual rate since 1992. The cost of gasoline and diesel fuel in the U.K. rose by an average of 30.7 per cent over the past year, the biggest increase since 1989.

– Cybersecurity officials in Ukraine foiled an attempt by Russian hackers to knock out power to millions of Ukrainians last week, government officials revealed on Tuesday. The hackers used an updated form of malware that was successful in targeting power plants in Kyiv in 2016. Meanwhile, at an event in Iowa, United States President Joe Biden called Russia’s war in Ukraine a “genocide” and accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of “wiping out the idea of being Ukrainian” before boarding Air Force One. In a show of support for Ukraine, the presidents of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland are expected to visit Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday. All four countries are NATO members which border Russia.

– A major blizzard has hit southern Manitoba as well as parts of Saskatchewan and northwestern Ontario early Wednesday morning. The system is expected to last two days, dropping between 30 to 80 centimetres of snow while also causing travel delays and power outages. As precautionary measures, all major highways in southern Manitoba were closed and all public schools in Winnipeg cancelled in-person classes for the first time since 1997.

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