OTTAWA - Canada’s finance minister on Wednesday said for the first time that federal pandemic aid to households and businesses has limits as the Bank of Canada warned of a “long slog” toward a post-pandemic economic recovery.
“Our fiscally expansive approach to fighting the coronavirus cannot and will not be infinite. It is limited and temporary,” she added. “If you are a household considering making a major purchase, if you’re a business considering investing, you can be confident that interest rates will be low for a long time,” Governor Tiff Macklem told reporters at a press conference.
The bank noted its projections assume new coronavirus outbreaks will be managed by targeted containment measures, but said the impacts could be more severe than anticipated. Deaths nationally topped 10,000 on Tuesday. Additionally, the bank reduced its bond-buying program to C$4 billion per week from C$5 billion while tweaking the program toward longer-term bonds.
Macklem also clarified previous comments on negative rates, saying the bar “would be very high” and that the idea was not discussed at the bank’s most recent policy talks.
at least Canada is trying to help their citizens...unlike the “richest country in the world”🙄 stimulusNOW