Cooling inflation could lead the Bank of Canada to cut rates sooner than expected, even as the United States shows signs of strength.

That was one of the main takeaways of an interview with David Doyle, head of economics at Macquarie Group, on BNN Bloomberg in a television interview on Tuesday.

Canada’s inflation rate came in at 2.8 per cent for February, down from January’s level and lower than what economists were anticipating. That increased the odds that the central bank might be prepared to lower lending rates ahead of schedule, Doyle said.

“[The results] will probably send the message to the Bank of Canada that they’ve got the right idea in terms of ending the interest rate hiking cycle, and now it’s sort of to wait and see if we get more of that,” Doyle said.

At the same time as Canada’s economy is showing signs of cooling, the U.S. central bank is slated to announce its latest policy decision on Wednesday, and Doyle is among the many economists who think the U.S. Federal Reserve will not lower rates.

Indeed, he thinks the underlying strength of the U.S. economy might give the central bank patience to hold rates where they are for a while longer.

Currently, the market is expecting as many as three rate cuts this year for the U.S., but Doyle thinks that may be overly ambitious.

“There might be some suggestion of: ‘let’s not get ahead of ourselves here,” he said. “There’s likely some further work to be done on the inflation front. So folks should be more likely to expect two rate cuts this year in the United States.”

If weak inflation in Canada prompts the central bank to cut while its counterpart in the U.S. is content to keep rates high, that would set up a nearly unheard-of scenario where the Bank of Canada and the Fed are on different wavelengths.