Bank of Canada

Opening Statement Good morning, and thank you for joining Senior Deputy Governor Wilkins and me to discuss today’s interest rate decision. Before turning to your questions, let me briefly summarize today’s announcements. First, we have lowered our target for the overnight rate by 50 basis points to ¼...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Available as: PDF The Bank of Canada today lowered its target for the overnight rate by 50 basis points to ¼ percent. The Bank Rate is correspondingly ½ percent and the deposit rate is ¼ percent. This...

Consistent with the direction from G7 Leaders, we are taking action and enhancing coordination on our dynamic domestic and international policy efforts to respond to the global health, economic, and financial impacts associated with the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Collectively, G7 nations have already enacted a wide-ranging set of...

The Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, the Federal Reserve, and the Swiss National Bank are today announcing a coordinated action to further enhance the provision of liquidity via the standing U.S. dollar liquidity swap line arrangements. To improve the swap lines’ effectiveness in providing U.S....

The Bank of Canada today announced that it has completed arrangements for all employees to telework until further notice to protect the health of our staff and reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19. Bank employees who perform critical business operations will continue to work at our Ottawa location and...

During this time of heightened public health measures intended to limit the transmission of COVID-19, some consumers and businesses are choosing not to use cash to limit potential exposure. Refusing cash could put an undue burden on people who depend on cash as a means of payment. The Bank strongly advocates that...

Opening Statement Canadians expect their economic policy makers to do what it takes to support them in this difficult period. The circumstances we face today require all hands on deck. Each institution is acting within its respective mandate to deliver a powerful confidence-boosting package of measures for...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE It is customary for the Bank to provide a summary of the deliberations of Governing Council after each interest rate decision. This takes the form of an opening statement at the meetings when we publish an MPR, or a public speech the day after meetings for which there is no MPR.   Governing...