Bank of Canada published its summary of Governing Council deliberations for the fixed announcement date of April 29, 2026.
The summary said Governing Council began by discussing the impact of the war in the Middle East on the global economy and inflation.
The global benchmark oil price was volatile and above US$100 per barrel at the time of the April Monetary Policy Report.
Members discussed how persistently high oil prices could affect the Canadian economy and inflation, and they decided to include a scenario in the April report to illustrate those channels.
Governing Council agreed that, if the economy evolved broadly as expected, something close to the current policy interest rate would likely be appropriate to support adjustment and keep inflation close to the 2% target.
The summary also described the opposite risk: if oil prices stayed elevated for longer, broader and more persistent inflation could require consecutive increases in the policy interest rate.
For households and businesses, the deliberations matter because oil prices and interest-rate expectations feed into borrowing costs, inflation, investment decisions, and the wider fiscal backdrop.