As an economist who worked as a banker for most of his career, Douglas Gibson brought an interesting perspective to public policy issues, to the relationship between government and business, and to the contribution of outside economists to government policies.
Summary results of a survey of Canadian foreign exchange and derivatives markets are now available. The survey was conducted by the Bank of Canada in April 1998 and covered activity in the foreign exchange and derivatives markets. Similar surveys were undertaken by about 40 other countries during the same month, and the central banks of many of those countries are also releasing their results today.
On behalf of the Minister of Finance, the Bank of Canada announced today that "Revised rules pertaining to auctions of Government of Canada securities and the Bank of Canada's surveillance of the auction process," released 11 August 1998, will take effect on 14 October 1998.
This past year, we have had to deal with the implications for our economy and our currency of increased global uncertainty and pressures arising from the problems that originated in Southeast Asia. I am sure that the effects of these developments, especially on primary commodities, such as oil and nickel, are already very familiar to Newfoundlanders.
On behalf of the Minister of Finance, it was announced today that Canada has renegotiated its existing U.S.$6.0 billion standby credit facility with international banks.
In mid-May we published our semi-annual Report on monetary policy, covering data up to April 24th. That means we now have new data available for the last two months. Furthermore, our report also pointed to a much greater-than-usual degree of uncertainty about the outlook for the Canadian economy.