Browse publications

Quarterly Financial Report - Third Quarter 2023 - For the period ended September 30, 2023

This is an account of the deliberations of the Bank of Canada’s Governing Council leading to the monetary policy decision on October 25, 2023.

The Market Participants Survey results are based on questionnaire responses from about 30 financial market participants.

Higher interest rates are working to ease price pressures in Canada and inflation is coming down, though progress to the 2% target is slow. The Bank projects that inflation will stay around 3½% until the middle of 2024, returning to target in 2025.

Results from the Business Outlook Survey for the third quarter of 2023, along with those from the July, August and September 2023 Business Leaders’ Pulse surveys suggest that on balance, firms are still planning to make larger and more frequent price increases than they did before the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, businesses' outlook for demand has continued to weaken as higher interest rates impact the economy.

Consumers’ perceptions of current inflation remain elevated and are diverging from actual inflation. Perceptions of high inflation are also leading to persistently high expectations for inflation over the next 12 months. Consumers’ expectations for interest rates one year from now also remain high, and many consumers believe that the impacts of higher interest rates on their household spending are far from over. Homeowners with a variable-rate mortgage are more likely than other consumers to report being worse off due to high interest rates. Consumers’ plans to purchase services, such as vacations or concerts, are more widespread than plans to make major purchases of goods that are likely to be financed with loans, such as vehicles or appliances. Workers are reporting signs of job market cooling, such as more time spent looking for a new job, but they remain confident about the labour market.

This is an account of the deliberations of the Bank of Canada’s Governing Council leading to the monetary policy decision on September 6, 2023.

Quarterly Financial Report - Second Quarter 2023 - For the period ended June 30, 2023

This is an account of the deliberations of the Bank of Canada’s Governing Council leading to the monetary policy decision on July 12, 2023.

The Market Participants Survey results are based on questionnaire responses from about 30 financial market participants.