The Financial Post reports in its Friday edition that this week's inflation numbers have ruptured the Bay Street consensus on when the Bank of Canada will next raise interest rates. The Post's Bianca Bharti writes that Bank of Nova Scotia's forecasting unit, led by economist Jean-Francois Perrault, predicts a quarter-point liftoff next week when the BOC releases its next quarterly report on the economy. Mr. Perrault thinks inflation, which accelerated to its fastest pace in more than 30 years in December, will force the BOC to raise its benchmark rate to 2 per cent by the end of the year from 0.25 per cent currently. That would be aggressive, especially considering the world still is learning to cope with a pandemic. An interest-rate increase next week could bruise the BOC's credibility, given it signalled last fall that it would not alter borrowing costs before the spring, said Desjardins economist Jimmy Jean. Even worse, BOC Governor Tiff Macklem could find himself in the middle of a public-relations crisis if it moves to slow economic growth when much of the country is in partial lockdowns due to rampant COVID-19 infections, said Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce economist Benjamin Tal.