stephen s poloz : opening statement before the house of commons standing committee on finance opening statement by mr stephen s poloz, governor of the bank of canada, before the house of commons standing committee on finance, ottawa, ontario, 24 october 2016. * * * good afternoon, mr. chairman and committee members. senior deputy governor wilkins and i are happy to be before you today. it is our normal practice to appear before this committee twice a year to discuss the bank ’ s monetary policy report ( mpr ). we published our latest mpr last week and are happy to answer questions about it and other economic topics. however, i suspect you may also want to ask about the agreement with the federal government that was announced this morning, which renews our inflation - control framework for another five years. so, before we respond to questions, allow me to say just a few words on both topics, beginning with the mpr. since our last appearance, there have been two developments that led us to downgrade our outlook for the canadian economy. the first is a lower trajectory for exports. after a sharp decline in goods exports over five months, we had a rebound in july and august. but that was not enough to make up for the ground that had been lost. we worked hard to determine the reasons for this shortfall. about half of it can be explained by weak global trade and composition changes in us demand, but the rest is unclear. so, in our outlook, we now assume that longer - term structural issues, such as lost export capacity and competitiveness challenges, are responsible for the remainder. this assumption led us to reduce the projected level of gdp by the end of 2018 by about 0. 6 per cent, compared with our july projection. the second major factor behind our downgraded growth outlook is the federal government ’ s macroprudential measures to promote housing market stability. these measures are welcome because they will, over time, ease vulnerabilities related to housing and household imbalances. that is important because such vulnerabilities can magnify the impact of negative economic shocks. we expect the government ’ s measures will restrain residential investment by curbing resale activity in the near term and lead to a modest change in the composition of construction toward smaller units. we estimate that this will leave the level of gdp 0. 3 per cent lower at the end of 2018 than projected in july. given these developments, we cut our growth estimate for 2016 to

supply together – if investors find the right environment. one point is the risk - return profile – which is partly determined by the perceived stability of the macroeconomic environment. this is where central banks have a role to play : price and financial stability are our core mandates. in this context, ladies and gentlemen, international cooperation is again to mutual benefit. one forum for this is the ngfs. it was created in late 2017 to address climate risks, and to align global financial flows with the goals of the paris agreement. from next year onwards, i will chair this network of almost 130 central banks and supervisors from across the world. considering all the demands, needs and expectations central banks are confronted with, it is more important than ever to work hand - in - hand. let me close my remarks : we are all in the same boat. we only have one planet. please, let us collaborate as equal partners. 1 guterres : renewable energy could be the african miracle : guterres - sabc news 2 von der leyen : speech by the president at the african climate summit ( europa. eu ) 3 wmo atlas of mortality and economic losses from weather, climate and water extremes ( 1970 – 2019 ). 4 according tot he south african development community, agriculture employs over 60 % of the population. employment & labour | sadc 5 from ipcc6 s. 1348 : " highest risk to hydropower output is in the zambezi, where the driest scenarios would see a 58 % reduction in revenues relative to a scenario without climate change " 6 ilo report on cyclone idai, 2019. 7 from ipcc6, s. 1350 4 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches