TORONTO - The C.D. Howe Institute's Monetary Policy Council (MPC) recommended that the Bank of Canada hold its target for the overnight interest rate at 0.25 percent at its next announcement on July 21, 2009, and keep it there until mid-2010. The overnight rate is a very short-term money-market rate that the central bank targets for monetary policy purposes.

The MPC is a panel sponsored by the C.D. Howe Institute to provide an independent assessment of the monetary stance most appropriate for the Bank of Canada as it seeks to achieve its 2 percent inflation target. William Robson, the Institute's President and CEO, chairs the Council.