BoC Gov. Tiff Macklem is speaking on Labour market impacts of COVID and sectoral implications
- at 12:30pm ET (1730 GMT) on 23 February 2021
- press conference follows an hour later
What to expect, via Scotia:
- There are still 850,000 fewer employed people than there were last February before the pandemic and so, for now, the BoC is right to be in monitoring mode.
- Pushing back on curve steepening, however, may prove unwise given it's a pretty haughty bet by a modest central bank to lean against powerful forces in global bond markets.
- The ways in which it may be attempting to do so include communications tactics, like emphasizing the currency (whatsoever the merit!) and present slack considerations, plus altering purchase programs such as raising provincial bond buying (again, whatever the merit).
