The Bank of Canada is holding its key interest rate at 5.0 per cent amid growing calls from provincial politicians urging a different approach to rising inflation.

Premier Andrew Furey yesterday echoed his counterparts in British Columbia and Ontario in calling on the Bank of Canada to hold the line on interest rate increases.

The central bank cited a slowing economy and the time necessary to see the effects of previous rate hikes to take effect in cooling inflation which hit a decades-long high earlier this year.

Premier Furey urged Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem to more fully consider the negative effects of continued rate increases. He says people are already struggling to make ends meet, and continued interest rate hikes are adding to the growing pressures.

The Bank of Canada however is leaving the door open to possible future interest rate hikes.