Search

This monthly newsletter features the latest research publications by Bank of Canada economists including external publications and working papers published on the Bank of Canada’s website.

The Bank of Canada today announced that it is maintaining its target for the overnight rate at 1 per cent. The Bank Rate is correspondingly 1 1/4 per cent and the deposit rate is 3/4 per cent.

Overall, businesses continue to be positive about the outlook for the next 12 months. While survey responses generally still indicate modest growth, with many firms citing headwinds from strong competition and moderate demand, the strength in commodity prices has led to increased optimism among those firms tied to commodity-related activity.

The results of the summer survey indicate that businesses foresee an improvement in the economic outlook. In particular, the balances of opinion on both future sales and employment have turned positive. Nevertheless, firms expect their activity to recover only gradually, and they continue to be cautious regarding investment.

In his speech, Price Puzzles and the Exchange Rate, Deputy Governor John Murray discusses the exchange rate pass-through and how it affects prices of goods and services in Canada.

Many emerging-market economies (EMEs) have significantly improved their macroeconomic fundamentals and undergone structural reforms since the Asian crisis. These developments have enhanced the composition of capital flows to EMEs through an improved debt structure, a larger share of capital flows as foreign direct investment, and greater access to international debt markets for corporations in EMEs. Structural changes in the global financial landscape have also increased capital flows, bringing economic and financial benefits to EMEs. During the recent financial crisis, however, the opening up of capital accounts and increased financial and trade linkages left many countries vulnerable to external disruptions. Countries with sound fundamentals have weathered the crisis relatively well. Policy-makers in EMEs need to implement policies that support capital flows and ensure that controls imposed to deal with detrimental outflows during periods of stress or rapid inflows are only temporary.

The Bank of Canada today announced that it is lowering the Bank Rate by one-quarter of one percentage point to 5 per cent. The operating band for the overnight rate* is correspondingly lowered, and the Bank's target for the overnight rate is reduced to 4 3/4 per cent.

With the adjustment to lower oil prices largely behind us, there are encouraging signs that growth is broadening across regions and sectors, Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn A. Wilkins told the Associates of the Asper School of Business in a speech today.

Right now, last week's tragic events in the United States are uppermost in people's minds. Like millions of people around the globe, Canadians are very concerned about the situation. We all share in the sheer horror of what has happened.

This article summarizes the proceedings of a conference hosted by the Bank of Canada in November 1995. The conference examined the interaction between monetary policy operations and the money market. It provided an opportunity to assess current operations before the introduction of a large-value transfer system leads the Bank to change the techniques it uses to implement monetary policy on a day-to-day basis. From the Bank's perspective, the papers prepared externally provided some useful insights into recent innovations in money markets and their implications for the implementation of monetary policy. Meanwhile, the sessions devoted to the Bank's operations in financial markets were designed to provide market practitioners and academics with further insight into how the Bank operates in these markets.