Borrowers in the southeast may feel a little more pinch in light of the Bank of Canada's announcement on Wednesday that they are hiking their interest rate up by .25 percent.

Formerly sitting at an even 1 percent, the new number will be 1.25, as the Bank points to strong economic trends as a factor in their decision to bump things up.

"I don't think it was unexpected. Most financial analysts were speculating the the Bank of Canada was going to raise the rate, there was already speculation on that on the previous hike, so I don't think it was a big surprise," stated Jackie Wall, the Executive Director of the Estevan Chamber of Commerce.

"For Canadians in general, and the southeast, it means that you really have to take a look at the amount of debt that you can manage, whether that be a business or a personal one. It's a time to take a look and see if you are managing things properly, if things can be consolidated, if you need to take a look at renegotiating some of your loans."

"There are a lot of different avenues that you can go on that. Of course there's financial advisers and the accounting firms," she added, pointing to the Saskatchewan Financial Literacy Network as another source for information. 

Wall said that quite a few folks and businesses will be examining their loans, while analysts are speculating that more hikes are on the horizon. The most recent increase is the third within a year's span, and those in finance believe that it could become a trend.

"People need to take a look at their debt load to make the arrangements for that, with those interest loans potentially going up. Maybe they need to lock some things in, maybe they need to take a look at consolidating some short term loans into more of a long term debt load."

"Basically, I think it's time that people take a look and see potentially how this is going to affect their bottom line. We also know that there are really high levels of household debt right now, so this goes right down to the individual."

Wall said that those individuals need to,"stay on top of their spending habits, and also on their levels of debt that they're holding."