BoC Gov Poloz spoke, testimony, to an upper house committee. Headlines here:
His remarks were along the same lines as those he uttereted the previous day to a lower house committee. So in a sense this post is a recap of what Poloz recapped. I suppose.
Anyway, the gist of his market-relevant comments:
- interest rates are at "very low" levels
- they'll rise if headwinds impacting the Canadian economy dissipate
- personal debt is at high levels
- thus the economy is more sensitive to interest rates than before
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The background is last week the BoC were explicit in saying no rate moves for now. Hikes are (or cuts) are data dependent.
BoC cited an economy struggling with:
- lower oil prices
- weak household spending
- global trade tension
The benchmark overnight rate was left at is 1.75%.
