A broad assessment of underlying trends in money and credit growth is particularly important at present given recent financial market developments. Heightened financial volatility may influence the short-term behaviour of money-holders and thereby complicate the extraction of the underlying trend monetary developments.
This strategy of "leaning against the wind" was pursued symmetrically, with the goal of smoothing fluctuations in either direction. By the 1990s, however, markets had become deep enough that daily interventions were no longer helpful. Government policy now restricts such interventions to the most exceptional circumstances and, in fact, Canada hasn't intervened to influence the Canadian dollar since 1998.