Consumer debt levels in focus as Bank of Canada weighs rate hikes: Wilkins

The Bank of Canada is considering the effect that higher interest rates would have on the country’s highly indebted populace as it ponders whether to raise rates, Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Wilkins said on Friday.

“We have to be very conscious of the fact that people are highly indebted and that interest rate increases are going to have ... more of a bite than they may have had in the past,” she told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. “We’re taking that into account.”