Will Canada Tighten Monetary Policy?

The Bank of Canada will get the first crack in the coming week at demonstrating whether, as many expect, monetary policy among the world’s major economies is set to tighten more in 2018 than in any year since the crisis, Reuters reported. Yet when policymakers gather in Ottawa on Wednesday, there is an outside chance they instead provide a warning that a gradual move away from a decade of massive stimulus will not be straightforward in these more politically unpredictable times. Expectations that the BoC will boost interest rates for the third time since July had surged in the run up to the meeting when blowout jobs data and a more positive business outlook added to momentum in the G7-member’s economy. CIBC Economics called the Jan 8 business survey—which showed signs of capacity pressures and labor shortages picking up—”the last key piece of the puzzle for a rate hike.”