Inflation and prices
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Survey-Based Estimates of the Term Structure of Expected U.S. Inflation
Surveys provide direct information on expectations, but only short histories are available at quarterly frequencies or for long-horizon expectations. -
November 1, 2006
Renewal of the Inflation-Control Target (November 2006)
Commentary and technical data relating to the 2006 target renewal. -
Survey of Price-Setting Behaviour of Canadian Companies
In many mainstream macroeconomic models, sticky prices play an important role in explaining the effects of monetary policy on the economy. -
The Macroeconomic Effects of Non-Zero Trend Inflation
The authors study the macroeconomic effects of non-zero trend inflation in a simple dynamic stochastic general-equilibrium model with sticky prices. -
Linear and Threshold Forecasts of Output and Inflation with Stock and Housing Prices
The authors examine whether simple measures of Canadian equity and housing price misalignments contain leading information about output growth and inflation. -
June 11, 2006
Evaluating Measures of Core Inflation
Since the Bank of Canada adopted inflation targeting in 1991, it has focused on a measure of core inflation as a shorter-term guide for monetary policy. When the targets were renewed in 2001, the Bank adopted CPIX as its measure of core inflation because of the advantages it offered. Leflèche and Armour review the experience with CPIX and whether the criteria used to select it in 2001 still favour the measure today. They describe the various measures of core inflation monitored by the Bank and evaluate them on the basis of the volatility of the components, the volatility of the core measures themselves, absence of bias relative to total CPI, predictive power, and certain practical criteria, including timeliness and credibility. They conclude that CPIX still satisfies all the empirical and practical criteria. -
April 15, 2006
Issues in Inflation Targeting: A Summary of the Bank of Canada Conference Held 28-29 April 2005
The Bank of Canada's 2005 conference focused on two critical issues: price-level targets versus inflation targets, and the appropriate level of inflation. Session topics included new methodological approaches to examining the validity of the New Keynesian Phillips curve for Canada; the monetary policy implications of border effects and the financial-accelerator model; the zero lower bound on nominal interest rates; and inflation and welfare in general-equilibrium macroeconomic models. A panel of invited speakers discussed the issues of each session, and two distinguished speakers gave their perspectives on inflation. -
An Evaluation of Core Inflation Measures
The author provides a statistical evaluation of various measures of core inflation for Canada. -
December 22, 2005
70 Years of Central Banking: The Bank of Canada in an International Context, 1935–2005
Bordo and Redish examine the evolution of central banking over the past 70 years and identify periods where Canada was either a notable innovator with regard to central banking practices or appeared to be following a slightly different course. They note that global forces seemed to play an important role in determining inflation outcomes throughout the 70-year period, and that Canada and the United States experienced roughly similar inflation rates despite some important differences in their monetary policy regimes. Canada, for example, was comparatively late in establishing a central bank, launching the Bank of Canada long after most other industrial countries had one. Canada also operated under a flexible exchange rate through much of the Bretton Woods period, unlike any other country in the 1950s and early 1960s; adopted inflation targets well before most other central banks; and introduced a number of other innovative changes with regard to the implementation of monetary policy in the 1990s.