The Bank of Canada provided a conditional commitment to keep the policy interest rate at one quarter of one per cent from April 2009 to mid-2010 to provide additional monetary policy stimulus by influencing rates at longer maturities. The commitment was conditional on the outlook for inflation.
In other words, it was based on the Bank’s view that this path for the policy rate was consistent with hitting the inflation target. Preliminary research on the effect of this conditional commitment indicates that expressing a specific period of time proved particularly effective.