It’s fair to say that Alberta and other energy-intensive regions have been on an economic roller coaster over the past few years. This has led to painful adjustments for many of you here and has also weighed on Canada’s bottom line. Seen from a macro perspective, nonetheless, Canada’s economic performance has been relatively solid.
That’s the perspective that we, as central bankers, need to take to meet our inflation objective. For much of the past couple of years, the Canadian economy overall performed near full capacity. The unemployment rate fell to historic lows while wage growth improved. In this context, Governing Council raised the policy rate during that period toward a more normal setting.