The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday, Oct. 23, edition that the sudden drop in the price of crude, a rise in housing market risk and the quickening U.S. recovery are among new and conflicting economic forces complicating the Bank of Canada's interest rate policy. The Globe's Barrie McKenna writes that the BOC left its benchmark overnight lending rate unchanged at 1 per cent on Wednesday, extending to more than four years its longest interest-rate freeze since the 1950s. The bank pointedly dropped the word "neutral," even while saying that inflation risks remain "roughly balanced." This comes after BOC Governor Stephen Poloz said recently he wants to move away from explicitly committing to future changes to its key rate. "There will no doubt come a day when we offer forward guidance again, but not this day," Mr. Poloz said in what were to have been his opening remarks at a postannouncement news conference in Ottawa. The BOC cancelled the news conference after a shooting incident forced a lengthy lockdown of Parliament Hill. The central bank may have abandoned the word "neutral," but it is still in the "very essence of neutral" mode, says Bank of Montreal chief economist Douglas Porter.