Assessing foreign demand is difficult, but because it represents such a large share of total output in Canada, we at the Bank spend a great deal of time and effort trying to gauge that demand. Of course, it is nothing new to say that our economy is importantly affected by events abroad. Canada has always relied on international trade.
The pandemic heightened our awareness of this important linkage between banking and supervision. Had we not tailored our supervisory approach during the pandemic, I believe the impact on our banks, our economy, and on consumers would have been much more severe.