Thank you very much. I appreciate that response.
We had the bank governor here a few days ago. I had a chance to ask him some questions. One of the questions I asked him was, if deficit spending had been lower over the last two years, would inflation have been less?
The reason I asked him is that the government's position all along has been that inflation is a global issue and that we see inflation in many countries, some a little bit higher, some a little bit less. What I asked the governor was to parse out this particular factor. Is government spending a factor in inflation? Would inflation be less if government spending was less? Would inflation be more if government spending was higher? He did acknowledge that lower government spending would have had a positive impact. In other words, it would have made the inflation rate a little bit lower.
I know that your mandate isn't only to do financial analysis but also economic analysis. Do you agree with the governor's response to my questions in that meeting?