MNI BRIEF: BOC Names UofT's Alexopoulos As New External Deputy
MNI (OTTAWA) - The Bank of Canada named University of Toronto economist Michelle Alexopoulos for a two-year term as an external deputy, expanding on Governor Tiff Macklem's push for outside voices in decision-making as the institution faces more political scrutiny.
She joins Nicolas Vincent as the second external and part-time deputy on the seven-person council that sets interest rates. In mid-2022 she told MNI the central bank had to be careful about its communication through a burst of inflation the public hadn’t faced in decades. (See: MNI INTERVIEW: BOC Challenged By Prices Yet To Peak-Researcher)
Alexopoulos has a doctorate in economics from Northwestern University and the Bank said she has conducted "innovative work in the application of data mining and textual analysis to create indicators for economic modeling and forecasting." She joins effective March 17, which is after the next interest-rate decision on March 12.