The head of Canada’s central bank warned that interest rates will be higher than what many have become used to as the central bank tries to bring inflation down to its 2 per cent target.

The comments from Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem, at a news conference on Thursday, came two days after data showed headline inflation in April was higher than expected at 4.4 per cent, in part because of higher mortgage costs.

When asked if reducing interest rates could help to ease housing inflation, Macklem dismissed the prospect of near-term cuts and said they would probably stay higher than the sub-1 per cent levels they were usually at over the past 10 years.

“Nobody should expect that interest rates are going to go back down to the very low levels . . . seen over the last decade or so.”