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Canada’s economy is adjusting to tariffs and the sharp drop in demand for exports. The reconfiguration of global trade and domestic production is leading to higher costs. Total inflation has been around 2%, while underlying inflation remains about 2½%.

The outlook for Canadian growth is broadly unchanged. After a weaker-than-expected start to 2026, GDP growth is projected to be slightly stronger in 2027 and 2028. Although near-term inflation has been a bit higher than anticipated, the outlook for inflation is little changed.

Using simulations of the Bank of Canada’s projection model, we assess inflation risks from greater supply-shock volatility and show that monetary policy faces sharper trade-offs, as stabilizing inflation increasingly comes at the cost of weaker real activity.

Equilibrium bond-pricing models rely on inflation being bad news for future growth to generate upward-sloping nominal yield curves. We develop a model that can generate upward-sloping nominal and real yield curves by instead using ambiguity about inflation and growth.

This survey took place in November 2021 before the Omicron variant of COVID-19 began spreading broadly in Canada. In December, the number of COVID-19 cases rose dramatically and governments began to reimpose containment measures. Many Canadians think inflation will be high over the next two years because of supply disruptions caused by the pandemic. They are more concerned about inflation now than they were before the pandemic and believe it has become more difficult to control. However, near-term inflation expectations are not feeding into expectations for wage growth or longer-term inflation. Showing confidence in the labour market, workers are more likely than ever to want to change jobs.

Find indicators of capacity and inflation pressures for Canada, financial vulnerabilities and market operations—along with monetary policy variables.

While inflation has come off its peak, it remains too high. As the economy responds to higher interest rates and as the effects of elevated commodity prices and supply disruptions fade, the Bank expects inflation to fall to about 3% in late 2023, then return to 2% in 2024.

Tariffs are significantly higher than they were at the start of 2025, and it is extremely difficult to predict how US trade policy will play out. Canadian economic activity has slowed but is showing signs of resilience. While inflation is close to 2%, underlying inflation has picked up.

We investigate the economic forces behind the secular decline in bond yields. Before the anchoring of inflation in the mid-1990s, nominal shocks drove inflation, output and bond yields. Afterward, the impacts of nominal shocks were much less significant.