Grahame Johnson

Author

Speeches

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Staff analytical notes

How does the Bank of Canada’s balance sheet impact the banking system?

Staff Analytical Note 2022-12 Daniel Bolduc-Zuluaga, Brad Howell, Grahame Johnson
We examine how changes in the Bank of Canada’s balance sheet impact the banking system. Quantitative easing contributed to an increase in the size of the banking system’s balance sheet and an improvement in bank liquidity coverage ratios. Quantitative tightening is expected to partially reverse these impacts. The banking system will have to adjust its liquidity management strategy in response.

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Staff discussion papers

A Review of the Bank of Canada’s Market Operations Related to COVID-19

Staff Discussion Paper 2023-6 Grahame Johnson
This paper reviews the range of extraordinary programs launched by the Bank of Canada in response to the pandemic-related financial market disruption. It provides some recommendations for future interventions to ensure the programs are appropriately structured for the financial and economic stresses they are intended to address.

Settlement Balances Deconstructed

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, public interest in the Bank’s balance sheet and, more specifically, the size of settlement balances, has grown. This paper deconstructs the concept of settlement balances and provides some context on their history, current state and possible future evolution.

Implementation and Effectiveness of Extended Monetary Policy Tools: Lessons from the Literature

This paper summarizes the literature on the performance of various extended monetary policy tools when conventional policy rates are constrained by the effective lower bound. We highlight issues that may arise when these tools are used by central banks of small open economies.

Implications of New Accounting Standards for the Bank of Canada's Balance Sheet

Staff Discussion Paper 2007-2 Mark Zelmer, Grahame Johnson
The Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) has implemented new accounting standards for the valuation and reporting of financial instruments. They are effective for the Bank of Canada in 2007. As a result of these changes, the Bank has begun valuing its holdings of Government of Canada treasury bills on a fair value basis and […]

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Staff working papers

An Empirical Analysis of the Canadian Term Structure of Zero-Coupon Interest Rates

Staff Working Paper 2004-48 David Bolder, Adam Metzler, Grahame Johnson
Zero-coupon interest rates are the fundamental building block of fixed-income mathematics, and as such have an extensive number of applications in both finance and economics.

Measuring Interest Rate Expectations in Canada

Staff Working Paper 2003-26 Grahame Johnson
Financial market expectations regarding future policy actions by the Bank of Canada are an important input into the Bank's decision-making process, and they can be measured using a variety of sources. The author develops a simple expectations-based model to focus on measuring interest rate expectations that are implied by the current level of money market yields.
Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Financial markets, Interest rates JEL Code(s): G, G1

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Bank publications

Bank of Canada Review articles

December 24, 2004

Government of Canada Yield-Curve Dynamics, 1986-2003

A database of historical Government of Canada zero-coupon yield curves developed at the Bank of Canada is introduced in this article, which also includes an initial statistical analysis of the behaviour and evolution of the zero-coupon interest (spot) rates over the full period and two distinct subperiods. Specific areas of interest include the evolution of the levels of key interest rates and yield-curve measures over the sample as well as daily changes in the key interest rates and the yield-curve measures; the identification of a relatively small number of factors that drove the evolution of the yield curve; and the total returns that would have been realized by holding bonds of different maturities for a given holding period.
August 22, 2003

Measuring Interest Rate Expectations in Canada

Financial market expectations regarding future changes in the target for the overnight rate of interest are an important source of information for the Bank of Canada. Financial markets are the mechanism through which the policy rate affects other financial variables, such as longer-term interest rates, the exchange rate, and other asset prices. An accurate measure of their expectations can therefore help policy-makers assess the potential impact of contemplated changes. Johnson focuses on the expectations hypothesis, which measures expectations of future levels of the target overnight rate as implied by current money market yields. Although expectations can be derived from the current yield on any short-term fixed-income asset, some assets have proven to be more accurate predictors than others. The implementation of a policy of fixed-announcements dates has coincided with the increased predictive power of these short-term assets. As a result of this improvement, a relatively simple model of the yield curve can now provide an accurate measure of financial market expectations.

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