OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Bank of Canada surprised markets on Tuesday by largely keeping a bias toward higher interest rates and issuing a fairly upbeat outlook on growth, adding for the first time that soaring household debt could justify eventual rate increases.

The central bank, which has held its key rate at 1.0 percent for two years, continued to use the hawkish language that has made it an outlier among the central banks of major economies. It softened its tone only slightly by making the timetable for rate hikes less definite.

The bank has frozen rates for two years but since April has defied the global trend by signaling plans to eventually tighten monetary policy.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/bank-canada-keeps-rate-hike-bias-flags-debt-131302224--business.html