It’s good news if you have a variable rate mortgage or a balance on a line of credit.

For the first time since last March, the Bank of Canada is expected to announce on Wednesday that it will hold its key interest rate, which currently sits at 4.5 per cent.

Economists say the central bank is facing a very different economic situation than it was a year ago, when it made the first of eight increases to interest rates.

In March of 2022, it was starting to become very clear that central banks around the world were behind the curve in hiking interest rates.

And since then, there have been eight hikes to interest rates.

The Bank of Canada announced at its last interest-rate decision that it will pause hikes for now to allow the economy time to respond to higher borrowing costs.

It was stressed that the pause is conditional, keeping open the possibility for more rate hikes if needed.