BoC's Poloz: Economy is likely to require less monetary stimulus over time

.Key highlights from the opening statement by Stephen Poloz, Governor of the Bank of Canada, before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance:

• Sources of economic growth have broadened across sectors and regions, and the process of adjustment to the oil price shock is essentially complete.
• Over the summer, we saw evidence of firming inflation and an economy that was rapidly closing its output gap.
• We forecast that the economy will expand by 3.1 per cent this year, before slowing to 2.1 per cent in 2018. This is still faster than the growth rate of potential.
• We are at a crucial spot in the economic cycle, and significant uncertainties are clouding the way forward.
• The first issue is inflation itself. There have been several conjectures about the apparent softness of inflation in Canada and many other advanced economies. 
• The second issue is the degree of excess capacity in the economy.
• The third issue is the continued softness in wage growth.
• Finally, the fourth issue is the elevated level of household debt and how that might affect the sensitivity of the economy to higher interest rates. 
• In this context, Governing Council judged that the current stance of monetary policy is appropriate.
• We agreed that the economy is likely to require less monetary stimulus over time, but we will be cautious in making future adjustments to our policy rate.