Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge is apologizing for flubbing a question yesterday.

In responding to a question relating to what he heard at the G-20 meeting about U.S. growth and how it might affect Bank of Canada projections, Dodge unintentionally attributed specific projections of the Bank of Canada to Alan Greenspan, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve.

In a statement, he indicates that he intended to say, “After listening to Mr. Greenspan and the ensuing discussion, I want to emphasize that I remain comfortable with our projections [those in the Bank of Canada Monetary Policy Report of 22 October] of U.S. growth of close to 6% for the third quarter—much stronger than we or anyone had earlier anticipated—and about 4% for the fourth quarter of 2003. In sum, I didn’t hear anything so very different that I would change our view on the U.S. economy, although perhaps at the margin there was more optimism about indications of an earlier pickup in investment in the United States than we had assumed.”

Dodge apologizes for his unintentional attribution of Bank of Canada projections to Greenspan.