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Governor Tiff Macklem talks about the need for the Bank to be clear, relatable and understandable when it communicates with the public.

How do unconventional monetary policies like quantitative easing and negative interest rates affect domestic financial conditions and the broader economy in small open econo-mies, such as Canada? These policies are effective in depreciating the exchange rate in small open economies, while lower interest rates are also passed through to the economy, albeit only partially. When conventional monetary policy is close to its limits, fiscal policy may be a more important complement to monetary policy in a small economy, particularly if global demand for safe assets compresses long-term interest rates.

The Business Outlook Survey is introducing two new summary indicators—one measuring firms’ outlooks for business activity and another measuring their outlooks for price growth. This backgrounder explains how the indicators are constructed, why they were developed and how they relate to macroeconomic series of interest.

As globalization intensifies, more and more regions are realizing the benefits of open trade and capital account liberalization. But with increased globalization also comes increased exposure to shocks originating outside each country's borders.

The Canadian economy is once again growing robustly, and the recovery from COVID-19 continues. The Bank is forecasting growth of around 5 percent in 2021, 4 ¼ percent in 2022 and 3 ¾ percent in 2023.

We review the literature on central bank forecasting with a special focus on the Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of England and Bank of Canada.

Canadian economic growth is projected to accelerate from 1.3 per cent this year to 2.2 per cent in 2017.

The global economy has been unfolding largely as expected, and prospects for continued robust growth are quite favourable, especially over the near term.

US tariffs are significantly higher than they were at the start of 2025, and US trade policy remains unpredictable. Inflation is near 2%, although underlying price pressures have picked up. With uncertainty about US trade policy still high, the outlook for the Canadian economy remains clouded.

During the 1990s the Bank of Canada made several changes that transformed its conduct of monetary policy. In the 1960s and 1970s, policy decisions were made in an environment characterized by instrument opaqueness and goal opaqueness, which tended to shield the Bank's operations from scrutiny and accountability. Since the 1970s the Bank has moved towards transparency and openness by rejecting multiple policy instruments and adopting a single, well-defined goal of inflation control. A recent survey has shown that the Bank of Canada is in the middle range of central banks with regard to its transparency and has lost points for not publishing the forecasts that shape its policy or the minutes and voting records of its governing body. Chant suggests that the public has benefited significantly from the changes the Bank has made, but that it should continue to support research on the benefits of low and stable inflation and continually inform other policy-makers and the public of the results.