However, there are lingering concerns about the U.S. and  BIS Review 38/2009  3  European financial systems, and the drastic disposal of nonperforming assets has only just begun. There is no clear sign of improvement in indicators for major economies at this point, and it will be some time before fiscal and monetary policy actions in these economies fully take effect.
New measures of external demand for Canadian exports have been constructed, which better take into account how Canadian industries are positioned in GVCs.15 Our staff have also constructed new measures of Canada’s effective exchange rate that better capture Canada’s competitiveness, not just relative to our export markets but also relative to third countries (Chart 5).16 This analysis contributes to a better diagnosis of Canada’s loss of competitiveness.