Bank of Canada 'getting closer' to raising rates, Macklem says
BNN Bloomberg
Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said his central bank is “getting closer” to raising interest rates as slack in the economy dissipates, in line with the forward guidance officials have been providing.
Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said his central bank is “getting closer” to raising interest rates as slack in the economy dissipates, in line with the forward guidance officials have been providing.
While substantial monetary stimulus is still needed for the economy to fully recover, Macklem said his team remains focused on its inflation target at a time when risks associated with price pressures have increased.
“For the policy interest rate, our forward guidance has been clear that we will not raise interest rates until economic slack is absorbed,” Macklem wrote in an opinion piece for the Financial Times published Monday. “We are not there yet, but we are getting closer.”
The loonie is up 0.29 per cent against the greenback following Macklem’s article, trading at CUS$1.2512 per U.S. dollar as of 10:37 a.m. in Toronto.
The language in the article is consistent with recent efforts by Bank of Canada policy makers to reassure Canadians that they are serious about inflation, including a decision last month in which officials pushed up the timeline for possible interest rate increases to early next year.
That policy decision was more hawkish than expected and caught some market players by surprise, but Macklem said the move was in line with the central bank’s communications throughout the pandemic.
