Of course, the cost of living is always front and centre for us at the Bank of Canada, where our primary monetary policy objective is to ensure that inflation remains low, stable, and predictable over the medium term. Some periods, however, are clearly more challenging than others in terms of meeting this objective.
To set effective policies in both tranquil and turbulent times, we must understand what drives inflation and be able to anticipate its future movements. So tonight I'd like to talk in some depth about inflation: exactly what it is, how we measure it, and how we gauge the underlying economic pressures that cause it to rise or fall.