and business leaders are prepared to take canada into a prosperous future. tiff did such a great job as senior deputy governor that, to find his replacement, we have had to split the position and look for two people to fill his shoes. i am pleased to report that we will be in safe hands. and, i look forward to introducing you to carolyn wilkins, the incoming senior deputy governor, who will oversee the bank ’ s strategic planning and operations and will share responsibility for the conduct of monetary policy. i also look forward to working with our new chief operating officer, filipe dinis, who will be responsible for managing all of the bank ’ s administrative functions. and with that, tiff and i are happy to take your questions bis central bankers ’ speeches

economies are showing solid growth, although there are some growing concerns about financial vulnerabilities – specifically, increased market volatility in response to political uncertainty. bis central bankers ’ speeches the economic recovery in the united states, however, is proceeding as expected, despite recent softer results largely due to unusual weather. in fact, private demand could turn out to be stronger than we had thought. the issues canada ’ s economy faces are not unfamiliar to you. competitiveness challenges continue to weigh down our export sector ’ s ability to benefit from stronger growth abroad. given the importance of the export sector to an open economy such as ours, and given the growing wedge between canada ’ s exports and foreign demand, the bank has deepened its analysis of the export sector, specifically, non - energy exports. non - energy exports by breaking down the non - energy export sector into a large number of subsectors, interesting facts and trends emerge. to start, we are discovering that there are subsectors, such as machinery and equipment, building materials, commercial services, and aircraft and aircraft parts, that are in line with fundamentals, or even doing better than their respective u. s. benchmarks. this suggests that, as the u. s. recovery gathers momentum and becomes more broadly based, many of our exports will benefit. the lower canadian dollar will also contribute to the recovery of these subsectors. other subsectors, including auto and truck makers, food and beverage suppliers, and chemicals, will also be helped by a lower dollar, but to a lesser extent, since they are experiencing greater competitiveness challenges. their recovery will be slower. the big picture tells us to expect a gradual convergence between the growth rate of canada ’ s exports and that of the u. s. economy. but this more granular research indicates that the wedge between exports and foreign demand will endure. and make no mistake. this wedge is real and it is big. the good news is that we now know more precisely just where it is – with about half of our non - energy exports. the bad news is that these subsectors are doing worse individually than we thought before. this deeper understanding of our export sector is valuable, but it does not make us any less concerned about the challenges ahead. looking forward, we continue to believe that rising global demand for canadian goods and services, along with the assumed high level of oil prices, will stimulate business investment in canada and help shift the economy to a more sustainable