US retail sales unchanged in October as shoppers moderated spending

Good afternoon. It’s a pleasure to be back home in Montréal, especially at this time of year. And it is wonderful to see so many of you again. My final speech of the year is always an opportunity to reflect on the year that was and to look ahead to the year to come. This year, 2025, was marked by the US swerve to protectionism and the resulting upheaval in global trade. It’s a story about uncertainty, and about the loss of trust in our trade relationship with our biggest and best partner. As I look to the year ahead, trust and stability will be critical themes. At its core, the role of the Bank of Canda is to maintain trust in our monetary system. Trust that the bank notes we issue are secure. Trust that our financial system is stable and efficient, so you can be confident that your money is safely stored and easy to use. And trust that the purchasing power of your money will be stable. The other theme for the year ahead is innovation. Stability does not mean standing still. We want to support innovations in money and payments that serve Canadians. That’s why, starting this year, we are overseeing retail payments. And next year, the Bank will add two more responsibilities: regulating stablecoins and implementing consumer-driven banking. With our role as the provider of cash and the supervisor of payments systems, and our mandate to control inflation, these new responsibilities make the Bank a one-stop shop for money you can trust. That’s what I will talk about today—money. Good money. Money that is safe, money that trades at par in all its forms, and money that has stable purchasing power. The Bank must ensure trust and stability of money in all its form Macklem: Money you can count on The Bank’s job is to maintain trust in Canada’s money—whether bank notes or digital money in your bank accounts. We do this by issuing currency that is easy to authenticate and hard to counterfeit. We also do this by supervising the country’s payment systems to ensure they’re stable and efficient. That way, your money is safe and secure wherever it is— in your pocket, in your bank account or when making payments. The Bank is designing advanced anti-counterfeiting features for the next bank note to be issued in 2027, a vertical $20 note featuring King Charles III. We are also supervising the systems that move digital money from one place to another—everything from a small payment from your phone for a coffee to large transfers between banks. It's critically important to the Bank that Canadian money be good money. That it’s trustworthy and secure. That it can be converted to cash, dollar for dollar, no matter its form.” BoC's Gov. Macklem: A future Canadian stablecoin must be pegged one-to-one to a central bank currency. A stablecoin must be backed by high-quality liquid assets so it can always be converted to cash at par. Conditions for redeeming a stablecoin must be fully disclosed,…