The Bank of Canada today reiterated its earlier pledge to maintain the benchmark interest rate at 0.25 percent until the end of June providing a rise in inflation does not occur in the meantime.

“On 19 January, the bank reaffirmed its conditional commitment to hold its policy rate at 1/4 percent until mid- 2010 in order to achieve its inflation target,” Deputy Governor Pierre Duguay said, according to a slide presentation he was giving in Levis, Quebec, and posted on the central bank’s website.