April 10 (Reuters) - Below are some key quotes from a news conference by the Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem and Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Rogers on Wednesday after the central bank held key interest rate at 5%.
BOC'S MACKLEM ON U.S. INFLATION DATA
"Latest CPI number came this morning, we haven't had a chance to look at it in detail. We are focused on where we think inflation in Canada is headed. Inflation is still too high, risks remain. But we are encouraged by the evidence we have seen recently. Inflation has moved down, and there is downward momentum going forward."
MACKLEM ON INFLATION EFFECT FROM U.S.
"Yes, developments in the United States does tend to have impact on Canada, both the strength of the U.S. economy and we import goods from U.S. that will spill into Canada. But if you look at the composition of U.S. inflation, it is not the goods price inflation that is the concern, it is more service price inflation which is not something.." that tend to impact Canada.
"But we have to look at this more closely."
ROGERS ON DIVERSITY OF VIEWS
"There are six of us. It would be really unusual if we all showed up with exactly the same view... We have a council for a reason."
"The diversity of views is a feature, not a bug. It forces us to have a really robust conversation and I think get to the best possible decisions. It's always been there, you get to see it more now because we give you a summary of deliberations. But a diversity of views is not a new feature on the Governing Council. There is a group of us and we all come with just a slightly different view."
MACKLEM ON CANADIAN DOLLAR
"We have a flexible exchange rate in Canada that allows us to gear monetary policy to what's going on in Canada. And overall the Canadian dollar has been really reasonably stable. If the Canadian dollar does move that's something we'll take into account."
MACKLEM ON GAS PRICES
"You have to look at commodity prices through two lenses. Certainly, global oil prices have a very direct impact on things like gasoline prices and that has a very direct and immediate impact on total CPI inflation. Gas prices tend to go up and down. So that's one reason why we're particularly focused on core inflation."
"If you look at the near term, we know gasoline prices have gone up, that's why we think total CPI inflation is likely to stay around 3% in the months ahead. What we're going to be particularly focused on is core inflation. We do think there will be further gradual easing in core inflation."
MACKLEM ON WEDNESDAY'S DISCUSSION
"There was a clear consensus to hold the policy rate. As we have indicated we are encouraged by the progress we have seen since January and we agreed that we wanted to see this progress sustained. We wanted more time to be confident that this progress will be durable."
MACKLEM ON DIVERSITY OF VIEWS
"I would just say that is why we have council to have diversity of views, but for the decision today there was a clear consensus."
MACKLEM ON RECENT PROGRESS SEEN ON DATA
"What is on our mind is that the decline we've seen in momentum is very recent. Wage growth has only just started easing, inflation expectations for households are only coming down very slowly.
"It's not one data point. It's not one number... And the message is, we are seeing what we hoped and we need to see. We just need to see it for longer to be confident that we are clearly on a path to 2% inflation. When we're at that point it will be appropriate to reduce our interest rate."
MACKLEM ON POSSIBLE JUNE RATE CUT
"Yes, June rate cut is within the realm of possibilities. We are encouraged by what we've seen since January. We look at our indicators. They're all progressing in the same direction, inflation has come down... We're encouraged by that progress."
Reporting by Divya Rajagopal, Nivedita Balu, Fergal Smith, Promit Mukherjee and David Ljunggren Compiled by Denny Thomas
