The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that the Bank of Canada kept its policy rate steady on Wednesday at 2.25 per cent, in line with market expectations. The Globe's guest columnists Jeremy Kronick and Steve Ambler write that economic data might have suggested a rate hike, but uncertainty from stalled Canada-United States trade negotiations led the BOC to maintain its position. Second quarter growth was boosted by surprisingly strong growth in business investment, up 9.5 per cent at annualized rates. But growth wasn't limited to business investment: Consumption rose 3.3 per cent and exports 14.3 per cent. After easing from 3.2 per cent in May to 2.6 per cent in June, headline inflation increased to 3 per cent in July, back at the upper end of the BOC's 1-per-cent to 3-per-cent control range. A big part of that 3-per-cent figure is due to energy prices -- without energy, inflation was 2.2 per cent. But crude oil prices have moved back up from under $70 per barrel at the beginning of July to close to $90 at the end of August, well above the $75 per barrel projected in the bank's last monetary policy report (all figures U.S.). With no end in sight to the conflict in the Persian Gulf, that pressure could persist.