Sorry, John F or someone told me FACTS only on here, so here it is from CBC.ca yesterday afternoon:

"

Just about everyone who watches interest rates expects the Bank of Canada to take an axe to its key lending rate Tuesday morning. The only point of debate is by how much.

With new data Monday showing the Canadian economy in the fourth quarter grew at its slowest pace since 2003, the chances of an aggressive half-percentage-point cut increased.

A survey of 26 economists by Bloomberg found 13 expect a half-percentage point cut in the overnight lending rate; the other 13 said they expect the central bank to trim by just a quarter of a percentage point to 3.75 per cent.

The shift to a more aggressive rate cut accelerated Monday morning following the release of a GDP report that showed the economy shrank by 0.7 per cent in December and grew at an annualized rate of just 0.8 per cent in the October-to-December period.

That weakness should be enough to see the central bank opting for the bigger rate cut, according to some analysts.    "