OTTAWA — The Bank of Canada is set to make its first interest rate announcement of the year this morning.

Forecasters are widely expecting a quarter-percentage-point cut.

That would bring the Bank of Canada’s key rate down to three per cent and mark its sixth straight decrease.

The latest employment figures in Statistics Canada’s December labour force survey showed the jobless rate dipped to 6.7 per cent.

Canada’s annual inflation rate fell to 1.8 per cent in December, largely on the back of the federal government’s temporary GST break.

The central bank lowered its benchmark interest rate by a supersized half-percentage point in both October and December as inflation hovered at or below its two per cent target, but governor Tiff Macklem said last month the bank would likely slow the pace of cuts going forward.