Bank of Canada Keep Key Rate at 0.25%, Warns of Economic Decline in 2021

Bank of Canada Keep Key Rate at 0.25%, Warns of Economic Decline in 2021
Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem takes part in a news conference at the Bank of Canada in Ottawa on Dec. 15, 2020. Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
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OTTAWA—The Bank of Canada says the national economy will go in reverse for the first quarter of 2021, hammering the hardest-hit workers again on the path to a recovery that rests on the rollout of vaccines.

Workers in high-contact service industries will carry the burden of a new round of lockdowns, which the central bank warns will exacerbate the pandemic’s uneven effects on the labour market.