December 12, 1997 Bank Rate Raised to 4 1/2 Per Cent Media Relations Ottawa, Ontario The Bank of Canada today raised its Bank rate by ½ of one percentage point to 4 ½ per cent. Content Type(s): Press, Press releases
December 11, 1997 Price stability, inflation targets, and monetary policy: Conference summary Bank of Canada Review - Winter 1997-1998 Tiff Macklem This article summarizes the proceedings of a conference hosted by the Bank of Canada in May 1997. The first conference held by the Bank on this subject was in 1993, two years after the introduction of inflation targeting in Canada. The 1997 conference revisited many of the analytic issues related to price stability that had been examined at the first conference, while also considering several additional questions. This time, with the extension of inflation-control targets beyond 1998 under consideration, particular emphasis was placed on the role and design of those targets. The conference also featured a round-table discussion among practitioners of monetary policy in three inflation-targeting countries—New Zealand, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Their remarks, which focussed on the experience with inflation targets, bring out very clearly the common challenges facing monetary policymakers in open economies. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Monetary policy framework
Constraints on the Conduct of Canadian Monetary Policy in the 1990s: Dealing with Uncertainty in Financial Markets Technical Report No. 80 Kevin Clinton, Mark Zelmer Canada's economic performance in the first half of the 1990s was adversely affected by high premiums in interest rates that were brought on by political and economic uncertainties. Content Type(s): Staff research, Technical reports Topic(s): Monetary policy and uncertainty, Monetary policy implementation, Monetary policy transmission JEL Code(s): E, E5, E58
December 1, 1997 What can monetary policy do to help the economy reach its full potential? Remarks Gordon Thiessen Canadian Club of Toronto Toronto, Ontario Today, we meet against a backdrop of some uncertainty in the international economy. I would like to begin my remarks with an assessment of what the recent financial and economic events in Asia could mean for Canada. Content Type(s): Press, Speeches and appearances, Remarks
November 27, 1997 Final report on wartime gold transactions released Media Relations The Bank of Canada today released a report by Professor Duncan McDowall of Carleton University entitled Due Diligence: A report on the Bank of Canada's handling of foreign gold during World War II. Content Type(s): Press, Press releases
November 25, 1997 Bank Rate Raised in Response to Persistent Weakness in the Canadian Dollar Media Relations Ottawa, Ontario The Bank of Canada today raised the Bank Rate by 1/4 of one percentage point to 4 per cent. The Bank's operating band for the overnight rate was similarly adjusted. Content Type(s): Press, Press releases
November 20, 1997 Monetary Policy Report – November 1997 In the last half-year, the economic expansion in Canada has become well established, supported by low inflation, highly stimulative monetary conditions, and a strong U.S. economy. Content Type(s): Publications, Monetary Policy Report
November 14, 1997 European economic and monetary union: Background and implications Bank of Canada Review - Autumn 1997 Chantal Dupasquier, Jocelyn Jacob The European Union, which currently consists of 15 states, occupies an important place among the advanced economies. The final stage of the European economic and monetary union (EMU) is scheduled to begin in January 1999 with the adoption of a common currency called the "euro." A decision on which countries will participate in the euro area in 1999 will be made next spring based in part on the achievement of the economic criteria laid out in the Maastricht Treaty. In this article, the authors, after a brief discussion of the historical background, cast some light on the institutional aspects of the EMU, on the formulation and implementation of economic policy, as well as on the internal and external effects of EMU completion. For Canada, the direct implications of the shift to the euro appear to be relatively modest, at least in the short run. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Exchange rates, International topics, Recent economic and financial developments
November 14, 1997 Bank of Canada Review - Autumn 1997 Cover page The Puffins of Lundy The coin is part of the National Currency Collection at the Bank of Canada. Photography by James Zagon. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review
November 13, 1997 Statistical measures of the trend rate of inflation Bank of Canada Review - Autumn 1997 Thérèse Laflèche As a guide for the conduct of monetary policy, most central banks make use of a trend inflation index similar to that employed by the Bank of Canada: the CPI excluding food, energy, and the effect of indirect taxes. In addition to their basic reference index, some central banks regularly publish statistical measures of the trend rate of inflation. The method used for producing these measures is, for the most part, based on the hypothesis that extreme price fluctuations generally reflect temporary shocks to the inflation rate, rather than its underlying trend. In this paper, the author offers a broad survey of studies on the measurement of trend inflation that have been published by the Bank of Canada and presents the results of the most recent work on the subject. Particular attention is paid to two statistical measures that the Bank follows more closely than other measures; namely, the CPIX, a price index that excludes eight of the most volatile CPI components, and CPIW, a measure that retains all the components of the overall index but gives a lower weighting to the most volatile. Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Inflation and prices