The financial markets are awaiting the decisions of the Bank of Canada today, Wednesday, which may have a strong impact on the movements of various currencies, especially the Canadian dollar and its pairs, particularly with expectations of a cut in Canadian interest rates during this meeting. Below is a look at what is anticipated to be announced by the Bank of Canada:

First: A look at the economic data affecting the decisions of the Bank of Canada:
During the recent period, many economic data have been released in Canada, which will have a strong impact on the bank's anticipated decisions.

In this context, the data released by Statistics Canada showed that the labor market data in the country were negative and worse than expected during the month of June, indicating that the Canadian economy lost about 1.4 thousand jobs in June, which was contrary to expectations that indicated the economy would add about 27.3 thousand jobs.

The unemployment rate in Canada also rose to 6.4%, marking the worst rate recorded in Canada since January 2022, which was worse than market expectations that had anticipated the unemployment rate in Canada would rise to only 6.3%.

Moreover, Statistics Canada released the inflation data for the country during the month of June, most of which were negative. The official data revealed a contraction in Canadian inflation, recording a decline of 0.1% on a monthly basis, contrary to market expectations that had predicted a slowdown in inflation growth in Canada to 0.1%. On an annual basis, the annual inflation growth slowed to 2.7% in June, while the index had stabilized at 2.9% at the end of May. Additionally, inflation in the general Consumer Price Index increased by 2.3%, which is a negative reading and lower than market expectations that had anticipated the index would grow at the same pace as the overall inflation in Canada in May, which was 2.4%.

At the same time, data released by Statistics Canada revealed the negativity of retail sales data for the country for the month of June, as the retail sales index in Canada recorded a contraction of 0.8% on a monthly basis, which was worse compared to market expectations that had predicted a contraction of about 0.5% only.

At the same time, the core retail sales index (excluding auto sales) contracted by 1.3% during June, which was also worse than market expectations, which indicated that the index would record a contraction of 0.5%.