The Financial Post reports in its Thursday, March 7, edition that the Bank of Canada held its key overnight interest rate at 5 per cent Wednesday, with Governor Tiff Macklem declaring it is "still too early" to consider lowering the policy rate. The Post's Barbara Shecter writes that the hold was widely expected by economists, and Mr. Macklem said that while there had been no big surprises since the rate hold in January inflation is still close to 3 per cent and underlying inflationary pressures persist. Mr. Macklem said, "The assessment of Governing Council is that we need to give higher rates more time to do their work." Many economists are forecasting that rates will start to come down by June, but the BOC governor gave few hints about when the cuts will begin, other than to say the bank's goals of price stability and low stable inflation at a target rate of 2 per cent remain. Mr. Macklem said: "We've come a long way in our fight against high inflation. Monetary policy is working -- inflation is coming down. But it's too early to loosen the restrictive policy that has gotten us this far." Mr. Macklem indicated that rates are unlikely to come down with the same speed and trajectory as they went up.