BOC

On October 23rd, Bank of Canada (BOC) Governor Tiff Macklem held a press conference stating that Canada has returned to a low inflation level, and the central bank's focus is now on maintaining low and stable inflation and ensuring a soft landing. If the economic trajectory aligns with expectations, further rate cuts are anticipated.

On Wednesday, October 23rd, the Bank of Canada announced a 50-basis-point cut to its policy rate, reducing it from 4.25% to 3.75%, in line with market expectations. This marks the fourth and largest rate decrease by the Bank since early June this year. 

The minutes of the Bank of Canada's policy meeting released on Wednesday reflected that members agreed that with broad inflationary pressures continuing to ease, it was appropriate to reduce the policy rate further. With inflation approaching the target, they needed to increasingly guard against the downside risks to inflation stemming from weakness in economic activity.

In July, Canada's merchandise imports decreased 1.7%, while exports fell 0.4%. Consequently, Canada's merchandise trade balance with the world moved from a revised deficit of $179 million in June to a surplus of $684 million in July.

Bank of Canada (BOC) Governor Tiff Macklem held a press conference on September 4 following the release of the BOC's August interest rate decision. He said that as inflation gets closer to its target, there is a growing need to guard against the risk that the economy is too weak and inflation falls too much. If inflation slows as expected, then further rate cuts would be justified. 

On Wednesday, September 4, the Bank of Canada (BOC) announced to cut its key policy rate by 25 basis points to 4.25%, marking the third consecutive cut in the Bank's interest rate, citing the continued easing in broad inflationary pressures. 

Productivity is a measure of efficiency—how much value an economy produces for each hour worked. But higher productivity doesn’t necessarily mean that people are working harder.

According to the Bank of Canada's (BOC) meeting minutes released on Wednesday, members agreed to clearly communicate that they would be weighing the forces that could pull inflation below the target against those that could hold it above the target. And it would be appropriate to lower the policy rate further if inflation continued to ease in line with the projection.

The Bank of Canada lowered its policy rate by 25 basis points to 4.5% for the second consecutive month and indicated that further rate cuts may be considered if inflation continues to cool as expected.