Interest Rate Hike - What does it mean?

Interest Rate Hikes
 As some, or probably all, of you have heard, the Bank of Canada has raised the prime interest rate 50 basis points Wednesday morning to 1%. But what does this mean to the average Canadian? An article from CTV News (https://rebrand.ly/d67z85i) states that for a variable mortgage of around $450,000, it would be an increase of around $100 per month.Not significant enough to cause panic or even affect cash flow for the majority of homeowners.But the article goes on to say that with the rising prices of gas and groceries, this increase could make more Canadians “feeling the crunch”. The stress test that has been in place since 2016 has prepared most mortgagees for the inevitable interest rate hike but there are still more hikes expected in the near future. A Bloomberg article (https://rebrand.ly/uwxovtp) that it is “expected to be one of the most aggressive monetary tightening campaigns every by the Bank of Canada” and that “There is an increasing risk that expectations of elevated inflation could become entrenched.” With the expected increases to the prime rate coming and the rising cost of living, I hope that the crunch won’t hurt as much as expected.