Bank of Canada Rate Decision September 2026

The Bank of Canada’s Governing Council announces its next interest rate decision on Wednesday, September 2, 2026, at 9:45 am ET (2:45 pm London time). The announcement will confirm whether the overnight rate target stays at 2.25%, where it has sat since the Bank’s last cut on October 29, 2025, or whether the Governing Council moves it up or down. This meeting does not include a Monetary Policy Report or press conference; those return at the October 28, 2026 decision. Full schedule and background: Bank of Canada Rate Decision.

What is the Bank of Canada’s Governing Council and what does it decide?

The Governing Council is the group of senior officials at the Bank of Canada responsible for setting monetary policy. It is chaired by the Governor, currently Tiff Macklem, alongside the Senior Deputy Governor and several Deputy Governors. Unlike the US Federal Reserve or the Bank of England, the Bank of Canada does not publish individual votes: decisions are reached by consensus among Governing Council members rather than a recorded ballot.

The Council’s mandate is inflation control, targeting 2% annual growth in the consumer price index within a 1% to 3% band. It does this by setting the overnight rate, the interest rate at which commercial banks lend to one another overnight, which then feeds through to mortgage rates, savings rates and business borrowing costs across the Canadian economy.

The Bank of Canada meets on a fixed schedule of eight rate announcements a year, roughly every six to seven weeks. Four of these meetings, typically in January, April, July and October, are accompanied by a Monetary Policy Report setting out the Bank’s economic projections, plus a press conference with the Governor. The other four, including this September meeting, are statement-only decisions with no press conference.

When is the September Bank of Canada decision announced?

The decision is due on Wednesday, September 2, 2026, at 9:45 am ET (2:45 pm London, and mid-afternoon in continental Europe). The Bank releases a short statement explaining the rate decision at this time. There is no press conference or Monetary Policy Report attached to this particular meeting, so market participants will have only the written statement to interpret on the day. A summary of the Governing Council’s deliberations is typically published around two weeks after each decision, giving more detail on how members weighed the arguments for holding, cutting or raising the rate.

The next meeting with a full Monetary Policy Report, including updated growth and inflation projections plus a press conference, is scheduled for October 28, 2026.

What to expect

The Bank of Canada has held its overnight rate at 2.25% for six consecutive decisions between December 2025 and July 2026, according to Trading Economics. That run followed an aggressive easing cycle: the Bank cut rates nine times between June 2024 and October 2025, taking the policy rate from 5% down to 2.25%, before pausing to assess the impact of US tariffs and a “structural adjustment” in the Canadian economy, in Governor Macklem’s words.

A consensus forecast for the September 2, 2026 decision has not yet been published by major polling organisations at the time of writing. Investors and economists typically firm up their expectations for a Bank of Canada meeting in the days beforehand, based on domestic inflation and jobs data released in the intervening weeks, and on pricing in the overnight index swap (OIS) market, which reflects what traders are willing to pay to hedge against a rate move. Readers should check nearer the date for updated pricing from sources such as Reuters polls or Bloomberg surveys.

The table below shows the Bank’s last several decisions, each sourced from the Bank of Canada’s own press releases.

Market impact scenarios

What will the statement and press conference signal?

Because this is a statement-only meeting, the main signal will come from the wording the Bank uses to describe growth, the labour market and the impact of US tariffs on Canadian exporters. Analysts typically parse phrases such as “proceeding carefully” or “prepared to respond” for hints about the Bank’s tolerance for further softness in the economy versus its resistance to reigniting inflation. Since the Bank of Canada does not publish individual votes, there is no dissent count to track in the way there is at the Federal Reserve or the Bank of England, though the summary of deliberations released roughly two weeks later can reveal how divided opinion was within the Governing Council.

Watch for any reference to the Canadian dollar, oil prices and global trade conditions, all of which the Bank has flagged as swing factors for its outlook through 2025 and 2026. Also worth watching is any language about the “neutral range” for interest rates, the level the Bank considers neither stimulative nor restrictive, since officials have previously described the current 2.25% rate as sitting near the low end of that range.

What It Means for Your Money

For Canadian homeowners, a hold at 2.25% means variable-rate mortgages and home equity lines of credit stay at their current level, while fixed-rate mortgage pricing is driven more by bond yields than by the overnight rate itself. A cut would lower monthly payments for variable-rate borrowers and could nudge fixed rates down too, while a hike would do the opposite. Savers with high-interest savings accounts or guaranteed investment certificates (GICs) would see slightly better returns if the Bank holds firm or raises rates, and somewhat lower returns if it cuts.

For credit cards and personal loans, most of which track the prime rate, a Bank of Canada hold keeps borrowing costs stable, while a cut typically feeds through to lower prime rates within a matter of weeks. Currency markets watch the decision closely too: a surprise cut tends to weaken the Canadian dollar against the US dollar, the pound and the euro, making imports from the UK and Europe more expensive for Canadian consumers and businesses, while a surprise hike tends to strengthen it.

Pension funds and stock market investors, both in Canada and internationally, use the Bank’s rate path to price bonds and equities. Lower Canadian rates generally support share prices by reducing the appeal of holding cash, while also affecting how UK and European pension funds with Canadian dollar exposure value their holdings. For UK and eurozone readers, the Bank of Canada’s decisions are watched less directly than those of the Federal Reserve or European Central Bank, but they still feed into broader expectations about how resilient North American demand is for UK and European exporters selling into Canada.

Related events

• Previous decision: Bank of Canada held rates at 2.25% on July 15, 2026
• Next decision: the Bank of Canada’s following scheduled announcement, with a full Monetary Policy Report and press conference, is October 28, 2026
• Full schedule and background on all Bank of Canada meetings: Bank of Canada Rate Decision

Frequently Asked Questions

What time is the Bank of Canada decision announced?

The decision is released at 9:45 am ET on September 2, 2026, which is 2:45 pm in London.

Will the Bank of Canada cut rates in September 2026?

This is not yet known. The Bank has held its rate at 2.25% for six consecutive decisions through July 2026, and any move will depend on inflation and labour market data released in the weeks before the meeting.

What is the Bank of Canada’s current interest rate?

The overnight rate target has stood at 2.25% since the Bank’s last cut on October 29, 2025, most recently confirmed by a hold on July 15, 2026.

What is the Bank of Canada’s current interest rate?

The overnight rate target has stood at 2.25% since the Bank’s last cut on October 29, 2025, most recently confirmed by a hold on July 15, 2026.

When is the next Bank of Canada meeting after September 2026?

The next scheduled decision is October 28, 2026, which will include a full Monetary Policy Report and a press conference with the Governor.

Where can I watch the announcement?

The Bank of Canada publishes the statement directly on its website at the time of release. There is no press conference for this particular meeting since it is a statement-only decision.

Results: Bank of Canada Rate Decision, September 2026

The Bank of Canada held its overnight rate target at 2.25% on September 2, 2026, a seventh straight hold and a decision that Trading Economics described as fully “as expected by markets”. The Governing Council’s statement, published on the Bank of Canada’s website, said the Canadian economy had undergone a broad recovery in the second quarter, but flagged that upside risks to inflation had increased, pointing to higher gasoline prices linked to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and continuing US tariffs.

This lands closest to the “hold at 2.25%” scenario set out ahead of the meeting, but with a twist: rather than the low-drama confirmation many had expected, the statement carried what several outlets, including InvestingLive, called a “modestly hawkish tilt”. The Bank noted that financial conditions had tightened since July, that long-term bond yields had moved up globally including in Canada, and that the Canadian dollar had appreciated slightly on US dollar weakness.

Because this was a statement-only meeting, there was no press conference or updated Monetary Policy Report to accompany the release, and no vote count was published, consistent with the Bank of Canada’s usual practice of reaching decisions by consensus rather than a recorded ballot.

Market Reaction

The Canadian dollar and shorter-term Government of Canada bond yields rose immediately after the release and the accompanying commentary, a move that the Globe and Mail said suggested traders were digesting the statement as slightly hawkish rather than a routine hold. The reaction reflected the Bank’s flagged concern over rising inflation risks, which reduced near-term expectations of a rate cut at the Bank’s next full decision, due October 28, 2026, when the Bank will also publish an updated Monetary Policy Report and hold a press conference.

Canada’s 10-year government bond yield had already been drifting higher into the decision, trading near 3.74% on September 1, 2026 according to Trading Economics, and continued to firm alongside the currency in the hours after the announcement. For UK and eurozone investors, the reaction was a reminder that North American bond markets remain sensitive to inflation risk even where central banks are holding rates steady, a dynamic that has also weighed on gilt and Bund yields through 2026.

What this means for your money now

For Canadian mortgage holders, the hold keeps variable rates and most existing fixed-rate deals unchanged for now, but the statement’s hawkish undertone reduces the odds that the Bank cuts again soon, so borrowers hoping for near-term relief on renewal may need to wait longer than previously expected. Savers with high-interest accounts and GICs keep their current returns for now, with less likelihood of a near-term drop.

The modest strengthening of the Canadian dollar makes imports from the UK and eurozone marginally cheaper for Canadian consumers and businesses, while UK and European exporters selling into Canada see a small currency tailwind. The bigger signal for global investors is the statement’s emphasis on rising inflation risk tied to tariffs and Middle East-driven energy prices, a theme that echoes concerns at other major central banks and could keep long-term borrowing costs elevated into the October 28, 2026 decision.