Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Governor, I'd like to ask you about the impact of immigration. In the Bank of Canada's October monetary policy report, GDP growth was projected to continue at around 2% through the first half of 2025 before increasing modestly to about 2.5% in the second half and reaching 2.3% in 2026.
That projection assumed that population growth would decline from about 2.5% in the second half of this year to an average quarterly growth of 1.5% over the rest of the projection. However, we know that the immigration reduction targets announced by the federal government last week are expected to result in a population decline of 0.2% in both 2025 and 2026, before returning to growth in 2027.
Given that a population decline means that fewer consumers and workers will be participating in the economy, what impact will the federal government's immigration reduction targets have on the central bank's growth forecasts?