OTTAWA- Central banks can be "very bold" in raising issues critical to a stable post-pandemic economic recovery without interfering in the work of governments, a top Canadian banker said on Wednesday.
Bank of Canada senior deputy governor Carolyn Wilkins -citing the disproportionate number of women who have lost their jobs due to the global coronavirus outbreak - said the banks cared about how inclusive, strong and sustainable growth was because it mattered to the economy.
"Central banks can be very bold in terms of raising issues that matter to sustainable and inclusive growth," she told an online panel hosted by the Paris-based Women's Forum for the Economy and Society.
"We can do this without getting into the politics but we can highlight things like access to capital, education, daycare."
Under new governor Tiff Macklem, who took over in July, the Canadian central bank has stressed the need for inclusiveness and emphasized public outreach.
Wilkins said she did not agree with the idea that there should be a trade-off between social and economic policy.
"I don't think we're going to get a recovery without efforts for inclusive growth and we're certainly not going to get a recovery that's sustainable without women," she said.
As an example, she cited the province of Quebec, where the participation of women in the workforce was among the lowest in Canada until the local government introduced a subsidized daycare system in 1997. Women in Quebec now account for the biggest share of the workforce in any province.
"If that's not an economic success, I don't know what is," Wilkins said.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren; editing by Jonathan Oatis) ((david.ljunggren@tr.com; +1 647 480 7891;))
