- Emphasizes that they "have been clear and deliberate" in response about not hiking now
- Omicron is also adding uncertainty
- Rogers: There was a high level consensus on the indicators
- Households have shifted to spending on goods and that's pushed up prices
- Port backlogs look to have peaked
- Inflation is uncomfortably high
- Hikes won't be automatic, will take decisions at each meeting
- As we get further down the path of rate hikes, the decisions will get more data dependent
- We ran a scenario where certain goods prices fell 30% and that would bring inflation somewhat below 2% next year
- We haven't built any reversal in goods prices into our projections but that's a downside risk to inflation
- At this point we're not considering outright sales of bond holdings
Reporters repeatedly asked why they didn't hike, almost in an aggressive manner.
What I noticed here is that Macklem hasn't tried to put any limits on hiking, like saying it will be at a 'measured' pace or anything along those lines. That sets up the possibility of a hike at every meeting.
