Lawrence Schembri: Economic progress report: inflation in Canada - well behaved and well controlled

Remarks by Mr Lawrence Schembri, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada, at the Halifax Regional Chamber of Commerce, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 5 September 2019.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Introduction

Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today.

The Bank of Canada's mandate is to promote Canada's economic and financial welfare. We fulfill this mandate in a number of ways, but we are probably best known for conducting monetary policy. We set our key policy interest rate with a goal of keeping inflation low, stable and predictable because that is the best way to promote sustained growth in employment and living standards.

Eight times a year, my colleagues and I on the Bank's Governing Council announce the setting for our policy interest rate. As you will likely have heard, we announced yesterday that we left our policy rate unchanged at 1.75 percent. Today, I would like to give you a sense of the thinking that led to our decision. I will also say a few words about the inflation process in the Canadian economy.