Posts

• December 7, 2004

  Bank of Canada keeps target for the overnight rate at 2 1/2 per cent

  Media Relations Ottawa, Ontario

  he Bank of Canada today announced that it is maintaining its target for the overnight rate at 2 1/2 per cent. The operating band for the overnight rate is unchanged, and the Bank Rate remains at 2 3/4 per cent.

  Content Type(s): Press, Press releases
• December 1, 2004

  Nominations Invited for the Bank of Canada's Law Enforcement Award of Excellence for Counterfeit Deterrence

  Media Relations Ottawa, Ontario

  Effective today, the Bank of Canada is inviting nominations for the second annual Law Enforcement Award of Excellence for Counterfeit Deterrence. This award is presented to one or more police officers, employees, or volunteers of a Canadian law enforcement agency who have demonstrated outstanding commitment and initiative in the fight against bank note counterfeiting or in the prevention of counterfeiting.

  Content Type(s): Press, Press releases

• Trade Credit and Credit Rationing in Canadian Firms

  Staff Working Paper 2004-49 Rose Cunningham

  Burkart and Ellingsen's (2004) model of trade credit and bank credit rationing predicts that trade credit will be used by medium-wealth and low-wealth firms to help ease bank credit rationing.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Credit and credit aggregates, Financial markets JEL Code(s): G, G1, G14, G2, G21, G3, G32

• An Empirical Analysis of the Canadian Term Structure of Zero-Coupon Interest Rates

  Staff Working Paper 2004-48 David Bolder, Adam Metzler, Grahame Johnson

  Zero-coupon interest rates are the fundamental building block of fixed-income mathematics, and as such have an extensive number of applications in both finance and economics.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Financial markets, Interest rates JEL Code(s): C, C0, C6, E, E4, G, G1

• The Monetary Origins of Asymmetric Information in International Equity Markets

  Staff Working Paper 2004-47 Gregory Bauer, Clara Vega

  Existing studies using low-frequency data show that macroeconomic shocks contribute little to international stock market covariation.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Financial markets, International topics, Market structure and pricing JEL Code(s): F, F3, F30, G, G1, G12, G14, G15

• Une approche éclectique d'estimation du PIB potentiel pour le Royaume-Uni

  Staff Working Paper 2004-46 Charles St-Arnaud

  The author describes results obtained by using a new methodology to estimate potential output for the United Kingdom.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Econometric and statistical methods, Potential output JEL Code(s): C, C3, C32, E, E2, E23, E3, E32

• Modelling the Evolution of Credit Spreads in the United States

  Staff Working Paper 2004-45 Stuart Turnbull, Jun Yang

  The authors use Jarrow and Turnbull's (1995) reduced-form methodology to model the evolution of the term structure of interest rates in the United States for different credit classes and different industries.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Financial markets, Market structure and pricing JEL Code(s): G, G1, G12, G13
• November 24, 2004

  Opening Statement before the Senate Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce

  Opening statement David Dodge Senate Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce

  The Canadian economy grew faster in the first half of the year than we had projected, largely because of a surge in exports. The economy is now operating near its production capacity and continues to adjust to global developments.

  Content Type(s): Press, Speeches and appearances, Opening statements
• November 24, 2004

  Asset Prices and Monetary Policy: A Canadian Perspective on the Issues

  Bank of Canada Review - Autumn 2004 Jack Selody, Carolyn A. Wilkins

  The issue addressed in this article is the extent to which monetary policy in Canada should respond to asset-price bubbles. The article concludes that maintaining low and stable consumer price inflation is the best contribution that monetary policy can make to promoting economic and financial stability, even when the economy experiences asset-price bubbles. In extreme circumstances—when an asset-price bubble is well identified and likely to have significant costs to the economy when it bursts—monetary policy might better maintain low and stable consumer price inflation by leaning against a particular bubble even though it may mean that inflation deviates temporarily from its target. Such a strategy might reduce the risk that a crash in asset prices could lead to a recession and to inflation markedly below target in the longer run. The circumstances where this strategy is possible will be rare because economists are far from being able to determine consistently and reliably when leaning against a particular bubble is likely to do more harm than good. Housing-price bubbles should be a greater concern for Canadian monetary policy than equity-price bubbles, since rising housing prices are more likely to reflect excessively easy domestic credit conditions than are equity prices, which are largely determined in global markets.

  Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Inflation targets, Monetary and financial indicators, Monetary policy framework
• November 24, 2004

  Bank of Canada Review - Autumn 2004

  

  Cover page

  Bus Transportation Tokens and Tickets

  The pieces illustrated on the cover range in size from 12 mm to 38 mm in diameter or width. They form part of the National Currency Collection, Bank of Canada.

  Photography by Gord Carter, Ottawa

  Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review