OTTAWA - Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney has some tough decisions to make as the recovery gains momentum, say economists.
But none expect the Carney to tip his hand Tuesday when by unanimous consensus, all analysts expect the central bank to keep its policy interest rates at 0.25 per cent.
With the absence of any concrete news coming out of the bank's announcement, markets will be left parsing the text of the central bank's statement for clues about how it thinks the economy will unfold this year.
Bank of Montreal economist Douglas Porter thinks this week, when the bank will have two opportunities to analyze the economy, would be a good time for Carney to downgrade his forecast.
The bank remains among the most rosy of forecasters in projecting the economy will grow by three per cent this year.
But the bank's third quarter of 2009 estimate of two per cent has already proven overly optimistic, with Statistics Canada already pegging the advance at a sluggish 0.4 per cent.
The consensus forecast for this year is 2.6 per cent, well below the bank's.
