In sum, the recent recession was different from previous ones, owing to a more pronounced slowdown triggered by unusually steep drops in exports and investment. During its initial phase, the effects of the crisis in Canada – albeit to a somewhat lesser degree – were comparable to those in the United States and showed real signs of becoming a “Great Recession” (Chart 6).
Monetary policy is also a blunt tool, and interest rate increases in 2003 or 2004  10  BIS Review 1/2010  sufficient to constrain the bubble could have seriously weakened the economy at just the time when the recovery from the previous recession was becoming established.