ottawasenior bank of canada officials discussed whether an interest rate increase was needed to ensure inflation could return to its 2 target but opted to leave its main policy rate unchanged gov tiff macklem said friday in a briefing from washington with canadianbased reporters he elaborated on comments during a press conference wednesday in which he disclosed the central banks governing council talked about whether the main interest rate at 450 was high enough when i said that weve discussed whether weve done enough that does imply that one of the things we discussed is whether we need to raise rates that could be now it can be in the future mr macklem said he added more insight would be available when the central bank issues on april 26 minutes from deliberations that led to this weeks decision to hold rates steady mr macklem reiterated the central bank expects inflation to slow to 3 from its current 52 level by the summer but the path to 2 could be problematic the downward pressure it expects in the second half of this year will be modest he said mr macklem said this week the central bank could raise rates should inflation get stuck in slowing from 3 to 2 the bank of canada sets interest rates to achieve and maintain 2 inflation