The U.S. economy was looking especially good, and this was making us more confident that the natural progression was taking place and we were on our way to solid, self-sustaining growth. Of course, we all know what happened next. The plunge in oil prices late in the year threw the recovery off course.
It was clear that the shock would be a net negative for the Canadian economy and would be a downside risk for our inflation target, so we lowered our key policy interest rate in January.