LIMA, Peru -- Stephen Poloz says the Bank of Canada helped navigate the country through the oil price shock by implementing two rate cuts, including one that rattled the markets.

He makes his remarks on Saturday to an international audience at a meeting of the Institute of International Finance in Lima, Peru.

He says the Bank of Canada adjusted its financial strategy in the face of dropping oil prices by lowering interest rates despite potential risks to the market in the short-term.

Poloz says lowering the rates meant a risk to household debt, but that it also set up the economy to recover more quickly.

The Bank of Canada cut its key lending rate twice this year, first in January and again in July, bringing the rate from one per cent down to half of a per cent.