christine lagarde : introductory statement at ecb press conference introductory statement by ms christine lagarde, president of the european central bank, at a press conference with ecb vice president luis de guindos, frankfurt am main, 3 february 2022. * * * good afternoon, the vice - president and i welcome you to our press conference. the euro area economy is continuing to recover and the labour market is improving further, helped by ample policy support. but growth is likely to remain subdued in the first quarter, as the current pandemic wave is still weighing on economic activity. shortages of materials, equipment and labour continue to hold back output in some industries. high energy costs are hurting incomes and are likely to dampen spending. however, the economy is affected less and less by each wave of the pandemic and the factors restraining production and consumption should gradually ease, allowing the economy to pick up again strongly in the course of the year. inflation has risen sharply in recent months and it has further surprised to the upside in january. this is primarily driven by higher energy costs that are pushing up prices across many sectors, as well as higher food prices. inflation is likely to remain elevated for longer than previously expected, but to decline in the course of this year. the governing council therefore confirmed the decisions taken at its monetary policy meeting last december, as detailed in the press release published at 13 : 45 today. accordingly, we will continue reducing the pace of our asset purchases step by step over the coming quarters, and will end net purchases under the pandemic emergency purchase programme ( pepp ) at the end of march. in view of the current uncertainty, we need more than ever to maintain flexibility and optionality in the conduct of monetary policy. the governing council stands ready to adjust all of its instruments, as appropriate, to ensure that inflation stabilises at its two per cent target over the medium term. i will now outline in more detail how we see the economy and inflation developing, and will then talk about our assessment of financial and monetary conditions. economic activity economic growth weakened to 0. 3 per cent in the final quarter of last year. nevertheless, output reached its pre - pandemic level at the end of 2021. economic activity and demand will likely remain muted in the early part of this year for several reasons. first, containment measures are affecting consumer services, especially travel, tourism, hospitality and entertainment. although infection rates are still very high, the impact of the

david dodge : recent review of the canadian economy opening statement by mr david dodge, governor of the bank of canada, to the senate committee on banking, trade and commerce, ottawa, 24 november 2004. * * * good afternoon, mr. chairman and members of the committee. we appreciate the opportunity to meet with this committee twice a year, following the release of our monetary policy reports. these meetings help us keep parliamentarians and, through you, all canadians informed about the bank ’ s views on the economy, and about the objective of monetary policy and the actions we take to achieve it. when paul and i appeared before this committee last april, we told you that we judged the economy to be operating significantly below its potential. that is no longer the case. the canadian economy grew faster in the first half of the year than we had projected, largely because of a surge in exports. the economy is now operating near its production capacity and continues to adjust to global developments. our latest monetary policy report, released on 21 october, presents the bank ’ s base - case projection for the period to the end of 2006. it calls for aggregate demand for canadian goods and services to expand, on average, at about the same rate as potential output. given the effects of higher oil prices and the past appreciation of the canadian dollar, economic growth in the report is projected to be slightly less than 3 per cent in 2005, and slightly more than 3 per cent in 2006. with the economy expected to remain near its production capacity throughout this period, core inflation is projected to move back up from the current level of 1. 4 per cent to the 2 per cent target by the end of 2005. this is essentially the same projection that we made last april. however, in october we expected that total cpi inflation would rise to near the top of the 1 to 3 per cent target range in the first half of 2005 before falling slightly below core inflation in early 2006. this projection incorporates the path suggested by futures prices for crude oil in mid - october, when we finalized the report. it is against that background, that the bank raised the target for the overnight rate to 2. 5 per cent on 19 october, our most recent fixed announcement date. the base - case projection in our october report assumes further reduction of monetary stimulus over time, to keep the economy near its production potential and to achieve the inflation target. we also emphasized that the pace of interest rate increases will depend on the bank ’ s continuing assessment of the prospects