By Ismail Shakil
OTTAWA (Reuters) -The Bank of Canada (BoC) said on Friday it has picked longtime bank executive Rhys Mendes to serve as deputy governor from July 17, filling a vacancy on the six-member governing council that will be created by the departure of Paul Beaudry.
As deputy governor, Mendes will oversee the BoC’s economic and financial research as well as its analysis of international economic developments, according to a statement from the central bank.
Mendes, who joined the bank in 2004, has been on secondment to Canada’s finance ministry since 2021, where he was serving as assistant deputy minister.
“We will benefit greatly from his experience and expertise in economic modelling, monetary policy framework design, and international policy issues,” BoC Governor Tiff Macklem said in the statement.
Mendes’ addition to the Bank of Canada’s governing council, which takes policy decisions by consensus, comes as the bank is assessing whether its record pace of rate hikes has been sufficient to tame inflation.
The BoC kept interest rates unchanged in its last two meetings after hiking at eight consecutive policy meetings, and has said rates may need to stay high for a while to ensure inflation does not get stuck above a bank target.
Canada’s annual inflation rate eased to 4.3% in March, its slowest pace in 19 months but still more than double the bank’s 2% target.
Mendes holds a B.A.
in economics from York University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Toronto. At the bank, he has held positions including managing director of economic and financial research and managing director of international economic analysis.
Last month, the bank said Deputy Governor Beaudry will leave at the end of July to return to academia, after a stint of more than four years.
(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Matthew Lewis)
