The Financial Post reports in its Friday edition that if the Bank of Canada had the same dual mandate as the United States Federal Reserve, it might consider increasing the pace of its rate-cutting plan. The Post's regular guest columnist David Rosenberg writes that in hindsight, it appears that the bank went too far with its aggressive rate hikes in 2022-2023.
The most recent data for July indicate that consumer prices rose by 0.3 per cent on a seasonally adjusted basis, primarily due to increases in gasoline prices. However, the details of the data are quite positive and overall trends are moving in the right direction. This strongly suggests that more rate cuts are on the horizon. It is important to note that the BOC is currently only removing excessive policy restraint. We are still at least 175 basis points away from providing any significant net stimulus to what can be described as, at best, a stagnant economy. The bee in the bonnet of inflation phobes all along has been the shelter component, but that softened to just a 0.2-per-cent increase last month, the faintest pulse in nearly a year and a half. So, the lags from the prior BOC rate hikes are finally showing through in the various housing components.
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