Sure, Governor.
One thing we look at, which the governor alluded to, is where we think the neutral rate of interest is. That's the short-term, risk-free interest rate. It's basically that the difference between that and our actual policy rate measures the degree of stimulus.
However, it's also important for investors and others to know where that is because it's where we think in the medium term we would be once the output gap is closed, inflation is back at target, and all of the headwinds have dissipated, or all the effects of shocks, as the economists like to put it, have dissipated. That's what's going to tie all of the other rates of return.
What one needs to keep in mind is not only where we are in terms of the cycle, but also where we are in terms of bigger structural changes globally. In Canada, that rate is going to be influenced by that. What we're seeing are the demographic changes that are occurring not only in Canada but globally. That means that global potential output growth is slower than it was in the early 2000s. That means the returns to interest are likely to be lower.
You have all of these factors, and you have global savings that are higher, so we're going to see lower rates than what we've seen in the past for a pretty long time.