It is a pleasure for me to appear before your committee for the first time as Governor of the Bank of Canada. We at the Bank appreciate the opportunity to meet with your committee, which we usually do following the release of our Monetary Policy Reports.
This point was made explicit in our inflation-targeting framework the last time we renewed it in 2011. The timing for a return to target thus requires a judgment on the balance of risks. Even when inflation is at target, we can’t afford to be complacent. Sometimes there are forces pushing inflation higher or lower, and we need to use monetary policy to counteract them.