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There are more than 700,000 Canadians who might be watching the next Bank of Canada decision very closely, because even a modest interest rate increase could push them over the financial edge.

A new study out Tuesday from credit agency TransUnion shows that of the 26 million credit-active Canadians in the country, 718,000 can’t absorb a 25-basis point increase or they won’t have enough cash flow to cover their debts. Raise rates one percentage point, something not likely to happen overnight, and 971,000 Canadians end up in a cash crunch.

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The next interest rate announcement is not due until mid-October but the consensus among economists is there will not be a rate hike until the third quarter of 2017. That may be part of the problem, since consumers have come to expect rates will never go up and are now borrowing based on a prime lending rate of 2.7 per cent.