Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
The intensity and persistence of supply chain disruptions that have helped fuel the rising cost of living have surprised the Bank of Canada, a senior bank official said Tuesday.
In a speech to Women in Capital Markets in Toronto, senior deputy governor Carolyn Rogers said a clear view of the future has been hard to come by over the last two years.
“What started as narrowly focused problems in a few key products - like computer chips - has spread to a wide range of goods,” Rogers said according to the prepared text of her remarks released in Ottawa.
“The invasion of Ukraine intensified supply chain problems and pushed up commodity prices and inflation worldwide.”
And now, Rogers said parts of China are under a renewed lockdown, causing further supply issues, transportation backlogs and uncertainty.
“These are things we didn't foresee,” she said.
The supply chain disruptions have been a factor driving inflation which has risen to its highest rate in three decades.
The Bank of Canada raised its key interest rate target by a half of a percentage point last month to one per cent and has warned more rate hikes are coming as it works to bring inflation back to its target of two per cent.
Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre has been critical of the Bank of Canada and its decisions.
Rogers stressed the importance of the Bank of Canada's independence in making its decisions and the work it has done to earn the trust of Canadians.
“The desire to have a public entity separate from both the banking sector and the political process, whose job is to guide the economy in the long-term best interest of its citizens, is what's behind the existence of central banks around the world,” she said.
Rogers said Canadians trusted the bank to respond at the start of the pandemic when it slashed its key interest rate and began buying bonds to keep interest rates low, and they are counting on it to move now to lower inflation.
“We take that trust seriously,” she said.
Rogers noted that with inflation running close to seven per cent and spreading to more and everyday items, it is squeezing family budgets and putting pressure on businesses.
“High inflation here in Canada and around the world largely results from global pressures such as supply chain disruptions and elevated commodity prices. But with the Canadian economy starting to overheat, we can't let demand get too far ahead of supply or we risk adding further to inflation.”
The Bank of Canada has said it expects inflation to average almost six per cent in the first half of the year and remain well above its control range of one to three per cent for the rest of this year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 3, 2022
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.