Last year, the ECB launched TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS), a platform that enables payment service providers to transfer funds to their customers in real time, on a 24/7/365 basis – and that settles in central bank money. Second, we are treading new ground.
While this is a global phenomenon, it makes maintaining a sound framework for monetary policy in Canada all the more important. From a longer-term perspective, since the adoption of an inflation-targeting framework 30 years ago, consumer price index (CPI) inflation has averaged close to 2 percent, despite periods of both upward and downward pressures on inflation.