The Bank of Canada considered leaving its key policy rate at 3% ahead of a scheduled announcement before concluding it needed to cut for the seventh consecutive time, Governor Tiff Macklem said in an interview on Wednesday.

Canada’s next leader is a relative political newcomer, coming instead from a decades-long career in finance where he steered governments through major global crises and periods of upheaval – experience he’s hoping to now leverage as he prepares to take over from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The Bank of Canada has cut its overnight lending rate by 25 basis points to 2.75 per cent, it announced on Wednesday, as an ongoing trade war with the U.S. begins to strain the Canadian economy.