The Bank of Canada today announced the appointment of Bruce Little to the position of special advisor for the year 2005-06. Little is a recently retired journalist from the Globe and Mail, where he spent most of the past two decades writing about economics and public finance.

Little will join the bank in September.

The special advisor position was created in 1998 to bring additional perspectives to monetary policy discussions and to give university and private sector professionals in economics and finance first-hand knowledge of the Bank of Canada.

Since the introduction of inflation targets in 1991, communications has been a strategic priority for the central bank. Little will advise on and participate in the bank’s various communications initiatives. He will also be involved in issues related to the bank’s economic research and planning activities, including the 2006 renewal of the inflation-targeting agreement between the Bank of Canada and the government.

Little holds a degree in economics from Queen’s University. He has worked for several news organizations, and he wrote a weekly column for the Globe and Mail that used recent statistics to explore economic and social trends, and another column on economic and government finance issues.

In 1999, he was the first recipient of the media award from the Canadian Policy Research Initiative, and in 2000, he received the Hyman Solomon Award for Excellence in Public Policy Journalism from the Public Policy Forum.

http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/July2005/28/c5389.html