Inflation is at the top of mind of many Canadians, and four StFX students are advising the country’s central bank – the Bank of Canada – how rising prices can be brought back under control.
Will Girling (BA honours in economics with subsidiary in mathematics), Mallory Long (BSc joint honours in economics and mathematics), Carly MacDonald (BSc honours in economics with subsidiary in mathematics) and Matt West (BBA joint honours in business and economics) greatly impressed the judges of the Bank of Canada’s Governor’s Challenge monetary policy competition. This event requires teams of undergraduate students to analyze Canadian and international economic and financial developments in order to advise the Bank of Canada how it should set its trend-setting policy interest rate.
The first round of the competition saw teams from 26 Canadian universities presenting their work remotely to Bank of Canada officials. This involved a 15-minute presentation on economic and financial conditions, risks to the economic outlook as well as concrete policy recommendations. This was followed by 15 minutes of answering questions posed by the judges.
The StFX team finished at the top of its six-university division, coming ahead of teams from universities that are more than 10 to 15 times its size.
The StFX team will now compete against the other four divisional winners at the national finals, taking place at the Bank of Canada head office in Ottawa on February 3-4, 2023. Along with StFX, the top five universities invited to compete in the final round include UBC, University of Alberta, Carleton and Sherbrooke.
“Participating in the Bank of Canada’s Governor’s Challenge was a great opportunity and helped us understand the importance of monetary policy, especially with the current state of inflation,” the members of the StFX student team said. “We are very fortunate to be a part of such an amazing team and we are particularly grateful to our supervisor, Dr. Greg Tkacz, and the rest of the economics faculty for supporting us. We are excited to represent StFX and the economics department in Ottawa for the national round of the challenge.”
