Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem wants Canadians to put their trust into the central bank with respect to bringing inflation back down to its preferred range.
“We are going to keep inflation under control,” stated Macklem, in an interview on CTV’s Question Period Sunday. “We know what our job is," he doubled down.
“Our job is to make sure the increases we’re seeing in globally-traded prices today don’t turn into generalized and enduring inflation in Canada.”
Macklem reassured that the central bank possesses the means to bringing inflation back down to the Consumer Price Index target of two per cent.
These statements come a short time after the Bank of Canada pulled the plug on its quantitative easing program and accelerating its timeline for a potential interest rate increase - suggesting this could in next year's second fiscal quarter.
Worries of unmanageable consumer prices have often been mostly dismissed and labeled as "transitory" by bankers including Macklem and U.S. Federal Chairman Jerome Powell. - though Macklem has admitted that word may not have been the most applicable.
“Transitory to economists means not permanent, but to a lot of people that word means it will be over quickly,” he said, taking a stab at a more appropriate term. “It’s probably something like transitory, but not short-lived.”
Makclem acknowledged that inflation isn't a problem individual to this country, and that global supply chain disruptions play an integral role in worldwide consumer price strains - “We’ve seen this rapid surge in global demand for goods. The problem is supply is still impaired. There’s still production problems because plants get shutdown because of COVID outbreaks,” said Macklem.
Despite the supply chain issues, Macklem assured that the BoC holds command in inflation control. “We’re going to continue to adjust our monetary settings. The goal is to secure that complete recovery, and bring inflation back to target.”