Bank of Canada cut interest rate over concern of COVID-19 outbreak

The Bank of Canada announced on Wednesday to cut its interest rate to 1.25 percent from 1.75 percent on Wednesday.

The Canada's central bank said that the cut is meant to help tackle the COVID-19 outbreak.

"COVID-19 represents a significant health threat to people in a growing number of countries. In consequence, business activity in some regions has fallen sharply and supply chains have been disrupted. This has pulled down commodity prices and the Canadian dollar has depreciated," the bank said in the announcement.

"In light of all these developments, the outlook is clearly weaker now than it was in January," it added.

The cut came after a call among central bankers and finance ministers from G7 countries, including Canada, about how to deal with the economic shocks the outbreak might have. The U.S. Federal Reserve cut its interest rate by 50 basis points on Tuesday.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)