The Financial Post reports in its Wednesday edition that Canada's annual inflation rate slowed to 2.7 per cent in June from 2.9 per cent a month earlier, a softening that removes at least one obstacle to another potential Bank of Canada interest rate cut next week. A Postmedia dispatch to the Post reports that during the BOC's last policy rate announcement on June 5, Governor Tiff Macklem said the bank will be making its policy decisions on a meeting-by-meeting basis. Since the last rate announcement, the unemployment rate has risen to 6.4 per cent and business sentiment has continued to soften. Katherine Judge, senior economist at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, thinks the central bank should trust its forecasts and cut its rate again when it meets on July 24. Ms. Judge wrote in a note to clients: "The economy is clearly in need of interest rate relief to ensure a soft landing with future headwinds such as large mortgage renewals and population growth that could crater. With headline inflation back within the target zone and the Business Outlook Survey showing firms' inflation expectations are edging down, any worries of upside risks to inflation or inflation being stuck above target is missing the mark."