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Asked whether any council members were in favor of hiking rates
at the meeting, Macklem said: "When I say that we've discussed
whether we've done enough, that does imply that one of the
things we discussed is whether we need to raise rates."
Macklem spoke to reporters from Washington where he was
attending the annual International Monetary Fund meetings.
On Wednesday, the Canadian central bank kept its benchmark
interest rate at 4.50%, as expected, but struck a hawkish tone,
playing down market expectations for a rate cut this year as the
risk of a recession diminished.
Macklem reiterated on Friday that interest rates may need to
stay "higher for longer" to get inflation back to the central
bank's 2% target.
Asked about quantitative tightening, Macklem said rate cuts
would not be a barrier to shrinking the central bank's balance
sheet so long as the purpose was to normalize rates, or move
them closer to a neutral setting, rather than stimulate the
economy.
The central bank estimates the neutral interest rate -- one that
neither stimulates nor constrains the economy -- to be a range
between 2% and 3%.
(Reporting by Steve Scherer and Fergal Smith; Editing by Chris
Reese and Leslie Adler)
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