The Bank of Canada has done, as expected, and is keeping its key interest rate at 4.5% as the impact of previous hikes makes its way through the economy.

The central bank says it will keep assessing if rates are high enough to bring inflation back to its target of 2%, keeping the door open to the possibility of more rate hikes

”The full impact of the rate increases we’ve undertaken so far, is not done,” according to bank governor Tiff Macklem.

”We will be assessing economic developments, and the effects of past rate increases relative to our inflation forecast. 

If monetary policy is not restrictive enough to get us all the way back to the 2% target, we are prepared to raise the policy rate further, to get there.”

The central bank says recent data reinforces its confidence that inflation will continue falling in the coming months.

It peaked at over 8% last June and as of February had cooled to 5.2%; the second straight month it came in lower than predicted.

Data for March, scheduled to come out next week, is expected to indicate that inflation’s fallen to as low as 4%.

The Bank of Canada continues to expect it to fall to 3% by the middle of this year, and back down to 2% by the end of next year.