© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A sign is pictured outside the Bank of Canada building in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, May 23, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Wattie
TORONTO (Reuters) – The Bank of Canada will release minutes from its policy setting meeting for the first time on Wednesday, as the central bank battles to restore credibility lost during last year’s fight to contain inflation.
The Bank of Canada has come under a rare attack from critics, including the opposition Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, for misjudging inflation, which led to renewed calls for it to release minutes and be more transparent about its decision-making process.
While inflation was a global problem, the Bank of Canada has stood out from its peers, including the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the European Central Bank, in not providing some form of record of their meetings.
Following a review from the International Monetary Fund, the central bank accepted a key recommendation and agreed to release the “Summary of Deliberations,” similar to meeting minutes released by other central banks.
On Wednesday, the bank will release minutes of its January meeting at 1:30 p.m. ET (1830 GMT), in which the central bank raised the key interest rate by 25 basis points to 4.5% and said it would likely hold off on further increases for now.
The IMF’s 98-page report, which followed a voluntary review with the Bank of Canada, included 10 recommendations, including that the bank publish summaries of its rate decisions and provide more transparency on its “bilateral collaborations” with government.
The Bank of Canada’s rate decisions are made by consensus, and Wednesday’s report could fall short of what some analysts have been hoping to see in terms of exposing disagreements.
But at a time when markets are hanging onto every word from the central banks, any details on how Governor Tiff Macklem and his fellow governing council members decided it was time to hit the pause button on rate hikes will be of interest.
