The Bank of Canada is pictured in Ottawa on Friday, March 3, 2023. THE CANADIAN The Bank of Canada held its benchmark lending rate unchanged at 2.25 per cent in the final monetary policy update for 2025. Most economists expected the central bank to announce a hold to interest rates, after recent reports on the economy were somewhat positive. This included recent gauges on economic output, or gross domestic product; consumer inflation, or the consumer price index; and the Labour Turnover survey showing unemployment ticking down for the second straight month. At least one economist thinks that if the bank makes any changes in the near future, it won’t be a cut, but actually a hike in the second half of 2026. “No change is priced until markets begin to seriously toy with a hike by summer into fall,” said Derek Holt, vice-president and head of capital markets economics at Bank of Nova Scotia, in a statement. “A great deal of uncertainty lies ahead into 2026, which cuts in both directions to our (Bank of Nova Scotia’s) expectati