The Bank of Canada has named three experts that will assess its internal review of the central bank鈥檚 policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The experts are Pablo Hern谩ndez de Cos, former governor of the Bank of Spain, Kristin J. Forbes, a former member of the Bank of England鈥檚 monetary policy committee and Trevor Tombe, an economics professor at the University of Calgary.

In a statement, governor Tiff Macklem said it is 鈥渃ritically important鈥� for the Bank of Canada to learn from its experience during the pandemic and the immediate aftermath to 鈥渟harpen (its) response to the next crisis.鈥�

鈥淭he diverse perspectives of these experts will help us draw the right lessons from this unprecedented crisis. This is critical to ensuring the bank delivers the best policy for Canadians, whatever lies ahead,鈥� he said.

Bank of Canada deputy governor Sharon Kozicki announced in June that the central bank would undertake a review aimed at laying out lessons learned from the bank鈥檚 actions.

In March 2020, the Bank of Canada cut its key interest rate to near-zero in response to the economic shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and signalled that rates would stay exceptionally low for a long time.

It also launched its first quantitative easing program, which involved buying government bonds to drive interest rates even lower.

Two years after the onset of the pandemic, the Bank of Canada began raising interest rates in March 2022 to combat rising inflation, and began quantitative tightening the month after that.

The bank says the internal review and external assessment will be published toward the end of the year.

The central bank鈥檚 policy actions at the start of the pandemic and in the face of rising inflation have received both praise and criticism from policy experts and politicians.

Many economists say the Bank of Canada鈥檚 swift response in March 2020 allowed the Canadian economy to avoid an even deeper recession.

Meanwhile, others have criticized its quantitative easing program as well as its aggressive hiking campaign in response to rising inflation.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has harshly criticized the Bank of Canada for its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, accusing it of bankrolling the federal government鈥檚 spending by buying up bonds, thereby fuelling inflation.

Poilievre has vowed that as prime minister, he would fire Macklem over the Bank of Canada鈥檚 actions.

Nojoud Al Mallees, The Canadian Press