Bank of Canada surveying Canadians’ expectations for inflation, job market

OTTAWA – The Bank of Canada is using a recently launched survey to measure household expectations in several key economic areas.

The central bank says it introduced a quarterly questionnaire in late 2014 to collect data on consumer expectations for inflation, the job market and household finance.

It says the web-based “Canadian Survey of Consumer Expectations” also explores household uncertainty linked to those issues.

The bank says consumer outlooks influence how the economy evolves and must be considered when setting monetary policy.

The survey is expected to fill a gap in the bank’s existing information sources and help it analyze issues such as the health of the labour market.

The banks says the questionnaire was inspired by a similar survey used by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.