Hence, there are grounds for optimism regarding Canada’s economic future. The harmful effects of high inflation The rate of inflation which, after getting through some of the post-war bottlenecks, averaged just over 2 per cent in the period to 1972, more than tripled over the next two decades. This pickup in inflation was not a uniquely Canadian phenomenon.
In many countries, monetary policy had become too expansionary during the late 1960s. This partly reflected a misconception among policy-makers that, by fine-tuning the economy and taking advantage of  1  BIS Review 64/1999  a perceived trade-off between employment and inflation, overall economic well-being could be improved.