Canadian export markets were concentrated in mature economies with relatively slow growth, such as the United States, rather than faster-growing emerging-market economies, largely in Asia. The remainder of this poor performance was tied to a lack of competitiveness: unit labour costs in Canada were higher than elsewhere because of slow productivity growth and  -3the impact of a stronger currency.
This action by the Reserve Bank obviously prevented interest rates from rising even further and, if anything, created an artificially low level of interest rates in the country. Perhaps with some justification, this policy of the Bank was recently criticised by the International Monetary Fund.