Stephen S Poloz: Understanding inflation – getting back to basics Remarks by Mr Stephen S Poloz, Governor of the Bank of Canada, to the CFA Montreal and Montreal Council on Foreign Relations, Montreal, Quebec, 7 November 2017. * * *  Introduction Inflation targets have been the centrepiece of monetary policy in Canada for over 25 years now. Every Canadian has benefited.
The high and volatile inflation and interest rates of the 1970s and 1980s are a distant, though painful, memory. Recently, however, inflation targeting has come under increased scrutiny. Many advanced economies have seen inflation either slow down or remain weak, even while economic growth has been strengthening. This has led some to question whether central banks can still target inflation effectively.