Bank of Canada studies a possible CBDC

The Bank of Canada, posted a position for an economist, digital currencies and financial technologies, as the Canadian central bank continues to research how a central bank digital currency (CBDC) would work as well as the possible risks involved.

According to the posting, the economist will: "monitor and analyze developments in electronic money and payments, including CBDCs, cryptocurrencies, stable coins, crypto exchanges, and others."

The advertisement lists as qualifications "nice to have" as: a knowledge of bitcoin, ethereum and other major cryptocurrency platforms as well as traditional payments systems like card networks, merchant acquirers, point of sale technologies.

The posting comes as the Bank of Canada has both expressed caution regarding the risks of a CBDC and also how the pandemic has accelerated the need for speed at which the central bank must research how a CBDC would work.

The signs are of relapse, not recovery, when it comes to the pandemic. Central banks must rise to the challenge again

The Bank of England has played down the likelihood of adopting a belowzero base rate. Photograph: Daniel LealOlivas/AFP/Getty Images

As Britain and the rest of Europe battle the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, desperate eyes turn to central bank bosses, wondering what rescue plans they have up their sleeves.

This year the Bank of England has pumped £300bn into the UK economy via its quantitative easing programme. The European Central Bank (ECB) pushed more than double that amount into the 19 eurozone countries, and the US Federal Reserve has done the same to keep credit flowing through the banking system.

These moves have prevented another financial crash, and given governments a degree of confidence that while they wrestled with the pandemic, central banks would keep cheap credit flowing.

Looking forward, the signals are not of recovery, but relapse, and it is not clear that the same old centralbank magic will make much of a difference. Inflation is sinking like a stone as consumers rein in their spending again. Annual prices in the eurozone fell by 0.3% in September following a 0.2% decline in August, according to figures last week. Consumer price inflation in the UK dropped to 0.2% in August, meaning prices barely rose.

Neither the Bank of England nor the ECB is anywhere near the 2% inflation level the central banks are expected to maintain, in theory.