Canada rate cut clearly driven by oil price drop: finance minister

[DAVOS] Canada's Finance Minister Joe Oliver said on Wednesday that a decision by the country's central bank to cut interest rates had been clearly influenced by a decline in the price of oil.

Ending the longest period of unchanged rates since 1950, the central bank cut the overnight rate to 0.75 per cent from one per cent, where it had been since September 2010, and it dramatically slashed its inflation and growth outlook for the coming year.

Mr Oliver declined to offer a judgement on the wisdom of the decision, citing central bank independence, but told a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the oil price had "clearly influenced" the move.

REUTERS