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HIGHLIGHTS-Bank of Canada governor Macklem speaks after rate decision

TORONTO, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Below are some key quotes from a news conference by Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem on Wednesday after the central bank held interest rate steady.

MACKLEM ON CURRENT LEVEL OF MONETARY POLICY STIMULUS

"We determined that given the current weakness in the economy, given the fact that the expected protracted recovery, the considerable amount of monetary stimulus we currently have in place remains appropriate."

MACKLEM ON STIMULUS OPTIONS

"We also agreed that if the economy turned out to be substantially weaker than our outlook, we have tools, we have options to provide even more stimulus and we’re prepared to use them. Reducing the lower bound from its current level of 25 basis points to lower but still positive number is one of those options to provide additional monetary stimulus."

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MACKLEM ON CANADIAN DOLLAR STRENGTH

"We did highlight in the monetary policy report that the rise we’ve seen in the Canadian dollar does pose some risk."

MACKLEM ON FURTHER CANADIAN DOLLAR APPRECIATION

"The risk is that we see a further appreciation in the Canadian dollar... If we see further appreciation, that will become more of a headwind. That does present some downward risk to our projections."

MACKLEM ON QE

"If the economy turns out to come in broadly in line with our projection, or stronger, the economy is not going to need as much QE stimulus going forward."

MACKLEM ON ADJUSTING ASSET PURCHASES

"As we gain confidence in the strength of the recovery we will begin to adjust our QE purchases. You can be assured this will be a gradual process. It's a process, it's not a switch."

MACKLEM ON A CHOPPY RECOVERY

"We have said for some time we are expecting a choppy recovery and unfortunately we're in a very serious chop. This decline in activity that we're expecting this quarter, the first quarter of this year, is larger than we had expected, we are moving in the wrong direction right now. So the hole is going to be a little bit deeper, so there's farther to climb back out from." (Reporting by Fergal Smith and Nichola Saminather Compiled by Denny Thomas)