The Bank of Canada (BoC) is expected to announce no change to the current ultra-low interest rates.
The BoC may be under pressure to increase interest rates due the the sky-rocketing Canadian housing market, and the increasing debt load of Canadian families. However, the GDP report released on Friday showed that the Canadian economy has hit a soft patch, and only expanded by 0.6 percent in the third quarter, which was well below the 1 percent expected.
Small businesses are an important part of Canada’s recovery, and in addition to keep interest rates low, one thing that the federal government has attempted to do to spur the economy is to provide increased government support for SMEs. For example, the Southern Ontario Fund for Investment in Innovation (SOFII) is a new Canadian government funding program, backed by FedDev Ontario. SOFII will provide a $12M fund in Western Ontario, and $8M fund in Eastern Ontario to support the growth of knowledge-based industries through loans.
