BOC's Poloz: Data Dependent, Not Acting On Rhetoric

By Courtney Tower

     OTTAWA (MNI) - Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz said Wednesday,

following a speech to the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce in British

Columbia, that the central bank would continue to be data-dependent, meaning

dependent on the major indicators and not "bumps and wiggles" that come along.

     He repeated to questioners that the bank, while keeping trade uncertainties

in mind, would not make policy on the basis of fears of what might happen.

"We're data dependent, not headline dependent," Poloz said.

     Actual trade events, such as United States tariffs on steel and aluminum,

are factored in to the July deliberations but not threats (such as auto tariffs,

or NAFTA collapsing) that have not occurred as yet, he said, with a focus on

"the big picture" of Canada's economy.

     "Things that are at the level of rhetoric, we don't respond to them at

all," he said.

     At another turn, Poloz told a questioner that he agrees "absolutely," that

no one wins a trade war, because it is the consumer who ends up paying for

tariff impositions and retaliation. The consumer pays and thus has less spending

power in the economy "and that's how everybody loses in a trade war," he said.

--MNI Ottawa Bureau; +1 613 869-0916; email: yali.ndiaye@marketnews.com

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