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Beginning on 7 November 2005, the Bank of Canada will be implementing a number of changes directed towards achieving a more timely release of noon foreign exchange rates. These changes will be implemented on a six-month trial basis to allow the Bank to assess whether further refinements are required to ensure that these rates remain an accurate reflection of mid-day rates in wholesale markets.

The Bank of Canada today released its October Monetary Policy Report, which discusses current economic and financial trends in the context of Canada's inflation-control strategy.

In the report, we said that the global and Canadian economies have continued to grow at a solid pace, and our economy now appears to be operating at full production capacity. Past and recent movements in energy prices and in the exchange rate for the Canadian dollar, along with competitive pressures from China and other newly industrialized economies, are giving rise to significant ongoing adjustments in the Canadian economy.

The global economy has continued to grow at a robust pace since the July Monetary Policy Report Update.

Understanding what causes the exchange rate to move has been on ongoing challenge for economists. Despite extensive research, traditional macro models of exchange rate determination—with the exception of the Bank of Canada's exchange rate equation—have typically not fared well, motivating economists to explore new ways to model exchange rate movements that incorporate more complex and realistic settings. Within the context of the sharp appreciation of the Canadian dollar in 2003 and 2004, Bailliu and King review the macroeconomic models of exchange rates, as well as the micro-structure studies that highlight the importance of trading mechanisms, information asymmetry, and investor heterogeneity for explaining short-term dynamics in exchange rates. In addition to summarizing the current state of knowledge, they highlight recent advances and identify promising alternative approaches.

The Bank of Canada today announced that it is raising its target for the overnight rate by one-quarter of one percentage point to 3 per cent.

Firms overall remain positive about the economic outlook.

An essential element of the Bank of Canada's inflation-targeting framework is a floating exchange rate that is free to adjust in response to shocks that affect the Canadian and world economies. This floating rate plays an important role in the transmission mechanism for monetary policy. A practical question is how the Bank of Canada incorporates currency movements into the monetary policy decision-making process. Only after determining the cause and persistence of exchange rate change, and its likely net effect on aggregate demand, can the Bank decide on the appropriate policy response to keep inflation low, stable, and predictable. Ragan reviews the need to target inflation and the transmission mechanism for monetary policy, including the role of the exchange rate, before describing two types of exchange rate movements and their implications for monetary policy.

Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge today said that the pursuit of financial system efficiency is an important way for regulators to "best serve the public and contribute to sustainable economic growth and prosperity in Canada."

The Bank of Canada has been contributing to the goal of an efficient financial system in a number of ways. The Bank's monetary policy aims to keep inflation low, stable, and predictable.