For the first time ever, the Bank of Canada has publicly released minutes from its policy meeting where the central bank’s governing council deliberates on interest rates.
The first meeting minutes are from January of this year, when policymakers decided to raise the Bank of Canada’s trendsetting interest rate by 25-basis points to 4.50%.
The bank's governing council, which is comprised of Governor Tiff Macklem, Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Rogers and three deputy governors, met several times in the week before the rate decision was publicly announced on January 25.
The minutes show that deliberations focused on whether to leave interest rate unchanged or to increase them by a quarter of a percentage point. The case for raising interest rates centred on the risks that inflation could get stuck above the central bank’s 2% target.
The meetings also included discussions about whether the central bank should maintain similar language as its previous policy statements or signal a pause in rate hikes to the media and public.
The Bank of Canada’s leadership team ultimately decided on new language that signalled a pause while it assessed the impact of rate hikes on the economy.
Central bank officials also discussed concerns that higher interest rates could have an outsized impact on Canada’s housing market, and talked about the risks that inflation gets stuck above 2% due to supply chain issues, services price inflation, and wage growth.
Lastly, the Bank of Canada’s governing council said in their January meetings that they expect Europe will move into a mild recession later this year, and that oil prices could go higher because of China's reopening.
While other central banks, such as the U.S. Federal Reserve, have long issued meeting minutes to the public, this is the first time in the Bank of Canada’s 88 year history that it has issued minutes from its policy meetings.
Meeting minutes will be released regularly by the Bank of Canada going forward.
