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OTTAWA — Does the OECD know something that Canadian economists do not? The simple answer: Not likely.

In recent global forecasts, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development has predicted the Bank of Canada would begin hiking its key interest rate earlier than private-sector analysts in this country would have ventured.

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The Paris-based group did it again on Tuesday, stating matter-of-factly in its twice-annual Economic Outlook that the central bank’s policymakers would begin bumping up borrowing costs “in late May of 2015” — many months ahead of when economists here had penciled in for the first rate move in more than four years.

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With the central bank’s trend-setting lending rate at a near-record low 1%, the OECD said “monetary accommodation will need to be gradually withdrawn to counter inflationary pressures.”

“The projection assumes this will begin around mid-2015,” it said.