Bank of Canada overnight rate target

Interest rateBy Narwhal API

The Bank of Canada overnight rate target is 2.25%, unchanged since 2026-10-26. The overnight rate target is the interest rate the Bank of Canada sets to steer overnight borrowing rates. Its instrument identifier is overnight_rate_target.

Bank of Canada overnight rate target

Rate2.25%
Rate typeOvernight rate target
First recorded on
CurrencyCAD
Country code in the APICAN

An overnight rate applies to borrowing overnight. The target expresses the Bank of Canada's policy setting as a single percentage, so its response has rate_type set to point. The rate field is a decimal string in percent per annum. It represents an annual rate even though the borrowing period described by the instrument is overnight.

Recent rate changes

DateChanged fromChanged toChange in percentage points
2.25%2.25%0.00
2.25%2.25%0.00
2.25%2.25%0.00
2.25%2.25%0.00
2.25%2.25%0.00
2.25%2.25%0.00
2.25%2.25%0.00
2.25%2.25%0.00
2.25%2.25%0.00
2.25%2.25%0.00
2.25%2.25%0.00
2.25%2.25%0.00

Canadian observations use observed_on, the date the source recorded the value. That date can be later than the policy decision. Other policy-rate streams may use effective_on, which records when a rate took effect. Each observation contains exactly one of these fields. The change table includes only observations where the recorded value changed; it does not repeat an unchanged rate.

Get the Bank of Canada overnight rate target from the API

  1. Request the latest observation Access is live on every plan, including Free, with one metered unit per request. Use uppercase CAN; omitting date selects the latest source observation at or before today UTC.
    Latest policy rate
    curl "https://api.narwhalapi.com/v1/economics/CAN/central-bank/policy-rate" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NARWHAL_API_KEY"
  2. Select a past date Add date to retrieve the latest source observation at or before your chosen day. A day without a source observation does not produce an invented daily value. Future effective dates never replace the current rate early.
    Policy rate at a past date
    curl "https://api.narwhalapi.com/v1/economics/CAN/central-bank/policy-rate?date=2009-04-21" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NARWHAL_API_KEY"
  3. Retrieve the history Set start for the history request. Observations arrive oldest first. Follow next_cursor until it is null; pass each returned cursor as the next request's cursor parameter. The default limit is 100 observations, and the permitted range is 1 to 1000.
    Policy-rate history
    curl "https://api.narwhalapi.com/v1/economics/CAN/central-bank/policy-rate/history?start=2009-04-21&limit=100" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NARWHAL_API_KEY"
Example response (values are examples)
{
  "country": "CAN",
  "authority": "bank_of_canada",
  "currency": "CAD",
  "instrument": "overnight_rate_target",
  "rate_type": "point",
  "rate": "2.50",
  "qualifier": "exact",
  "unit": "percent",
  "observed_on": "2009-04-21"
}

History coverage

FieldValue
From21 April 2009
Date fieldobserved_on
RowsSource observations, oldest first; missing days are not synthesised

The Bank of Canada publishes the source values. Narwhal changed only the format and preserves values exactly as published. The date field retains the source observation's meaning, so a historical row should not be read as a record of the decision date.

How do I get Bank of Canada interest rate history?

After public access opens, use the history route with CAN and a start date. Add end to bound the requested period. REST and MCP share the policy-rate contract; the MCP history tool is economics_get_policy_rate_history.

History cursors pin publications for 24 hours. An expired cursor returns 409, as does a cursor whose source rights have been withdrawn. See policy-rate documentation for the contract and API errors for error handling.

Source

Source: Bank of Canada. This information is available free of charge on the Bank of Canada website: https://www.bankofcanada.ca.

Published .

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