The end of Canada’s quantitative easing strategy and higher than expected interest rates will be beneficial to Canadian defined benefit pension plans, according to Sebastien Betermier, an associate professor of finance at McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management. On Wednesday, Tiff Macklem, governor of the Bank of Canada, announced plans to end its quantitative easing policy and […]
Mike Tyson’s one liner “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth” comes to mind when I think of the predicament central banks must confront these days. The plan is, and has been, to keep interest rates low for an extended period. While the punch in the mouth is the building up […]
While inflation never materialized after the last financial crisis and the subsequent economic expansion, this time will be different, said Erik Weisman, portfolio manager and chief economist at MFS Investment Management, when speaking at the Canadian Investment Review’s Investment Innovation Conference in November. After the global financial crisis, quantitative easing didn’t generate inflation because the […]
The Bank of Canada kept its key interest rate on hold Wednesday as it said the country’s economy won’t recoup the losses from the coronavirus until 2022, with the road to recovery dependent on the path of the pandemic. In July, the Bank of Canada said it believed the country had been spared from a […]
The head of the European Central Bank says the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic “risks losing momentum” due to a second wave of infections and that more stimulus could be added if necessary. “The second wave of the pandemic in Europe, notably in France, and the resulting new restrictions are adding to the uncertainty […]
The Bank of Canada sought Wednesday to temper economic excitement about a sharper-than-expected rebound from the depths of the coronavirus crisis, pointing to worrying trends that signal all is still not well. In a statement, the central bank’s governing council said the bounce-back activity in the third quarter looks to be faster than it anticipated […]
While massive monetary policy response didn’t drive inflation following the 2008/09 financial crisis, institutional investors are mulling over whether things may be different this time. The global economy has rarely seen such a swift willingness to engage with economic calamity on both monetary and fiscal levels, says Erik Weisman, chief economist and fixed income portfolio […]
The head of the Bank of Canada made an international pitch to his fellow central bankers on Thursday to forge closer ties with average citizens to manage economic expectations through the pandemic, or risk losing public trust and face an existential crisis. Speaking remotely at an annual gathering usually hosted in Jackson Hole, Wyo., governor […]
The coronavirus pandemic will leave some long-term economic damage that will only become clearer as the country moves further along a “prolonged and bumpy” course to recovery, Canada’s top central banker says. In his first speech as governor, Tiff Macklem said the central bank expects to see growth in the third quarter of this year […]
With central banks targeting short-term interest rates near zero and engaging in quantitative easing, will they resort to other monetary policy tools like yield curve control to further stimulate the economy? Yield curve control is when a central bank targets a longer-term interest rate and then pledges to buy the required amount of bonds to […]