The Bank of Canada delivered a fourth consecutive outsized interest-rate hike in a bid to slow the nation’s economy and drag inflation down from four-decade highs, Bloomberg News reported. Policy makers led by Governor Tiff Macklem raised the benchmark overnight rate by 75 basis points to 3.25% on Wednesday, giving Canada’s central bank the highest policy rate among major advanced economies. Officials said they expect to continue raising rates in coming months.

The Bank of Canada is widely expected to deliver yet another oversized interest rate hike next week, lifting its policy rate into restrictive territory for the first time in two decades, but bets are split on whether or not a pause will follow, Reuters reported. BoC Governor Tiff Macklem has made clear the central bank is focused on getting "to the top end or slightly above" the neutral rate, the range from 2% to 3% where monetary policy neither stimulates nor weighs on the economy. The neutral range has declined over the last 20 years. That should happen on Sept.

The Canadian economy accelerated in the second quarter as the nation benefited from surging commodity prices and got a boost from the lifting of Covid lockdowns, though signs are emerging the momentum is waning, Bloomberg News reported. Gross domestic product rose at a 3.3% annualized rate after a 3.1% increase in the first three months of the year, Statistics Canada reported Wednesday. Growth was led by stronger household consumption and business spending on inventories. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected 4.4% annualized growth in the second quarter.

Cineworld Group Plc equity holders are set to be left with nothing, a short seller warned after the cinema operator said this week that it was considering filing for U.S. bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. Argonaut Capital Partners LLP’s Barry Norris told Bloomberg Television that Cineworld’s pursuit of acquisitions that were funded by debt had left it with a “completely unsustainable” capital structure. A spokesman for Cineworld declined to comment on Argonaut’s position or interview but requested that Bloomberg highlight the firm’s Aug.

Canadian employers continue to report record levels of job vacancies, pointing to a drum-tight labor market that’s likely to keep the central bank on an aggressive hiking path, Bloomberg News reported. Unfilled positions rose by 32,500 in June to 1.03 million, Statistics Canada reported Thursday. It marks the fourth straight month of vacancies near or above the 1 million threshold. The job vacancy rate -- the number of unfilled jobs as a share of all positions -- was 5.9% in June, matching a record high.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada would be willing to consider easing the regulatory burden on new gas export facilities to Europe, while indicating the business case for investments may be a difficult one, Bloomberg News reported. Speaking to reporters in Montreal at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Trudeau said the challenge is that any new liquefied natural gas terminal on Canada’s eastern shore would be far from country’s western gas fields.

Bank of Nova Scotia’s years-long turnaround of its Latin America-focused international unit faced a setback last quarter as the division’s lending margins contracted and non-interest revenue slipped, Bloomberg News reported. The unit’s total revenue came in at C$2.42 billion ($1.86 billion) in the fiscal third quarter, the Toronto-based bank said in a statement Tuesday. While that’s up 2.4% from a year earlier, it trailed analysts’ C$2.54 billion average estimate. Overall profit also missed expectations.

The Bank of Canada has more work to do in taming stubborn price pressures despite signs headline inflation may have peaked, Governor Tiff Macklem said, Bloomberg News reported. Macklem delivered the hawkish message in a newspaper opinion piece Tuesday afternoon, hours after Statistics Canada reported that consumer price gains slowed to a 7.6% yearly pace in July on a steep drop in gasoline prices.

Canada's second-largest pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) is exploring legal options over bankrupt crypto lending firm Celsius and will no longer invest in crypto firms, it said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. CDPQ's statement came as the fund recovers from its failed investment in New Jersey-based Celsius, which filed for bankruptcy in July less than a year after it received an investment of $150 million from the fund.

Canadian mortgage investment corporations (MICs), alternative lenders that offer riskier home loans and small construction financing, are struggling to attract investors, firms and analysts said, which could increase pressure on them and spur consolidation in the sector, Reuters reported. These alternative lenders, which make up about 1.5% of Canada's mortgage market, drew investors looking for high returns as interest rates hit rock bottom in recent years. But with rates rising rapidly under a Bank of Canada tightening cycle this year, investors have sought higher-yielding, safer assets.