The statement seems innocuous enough, but it’s who’s making it that draws attention.

In the midst of its semi-annual Financial System Review, released Thursday, Bank of Canada analysts write that the stock market may be overvalued.

“While indicators point in different directions, various measures, such as forward price-earnings ratios, suggest that equity prices may have increased by more than warranted in the context of an expected slow recovery,” the Bank of Canada said.

It may not be as memorable as Alan Greenspan’s famous mid-1990s suggestion of “irrational exuberance,” but market watchers say the bank may have tiptoed past its typical commentary and offered an actual opinion. Reports from the Bank of Canada in June and October offered purely descriptive commentary on the equity markets.

Bank of Canada spokesman Jeremy Harrison declined to comment beyond Thursday’s publication.

The Bank of Canada’s report on equities “is usually a fairly benign comment,” said David Rosenberg, the chief economist and strategist for investment firm Gluskin Sheff + Associates Inc. “It’s surprising to see the bank so open in terms of its assessment in terms of equity market valuation. And I agree with them … I welcome the candour.”

Mr. Rosenberg is a noted bear who believes the market is “more than just fully priced” and believes current earnings assumptions are based on unrealistic projections of nominal GDP growth.

Alas, there are plenty of bulls to disagree. Tony Demarin, president and chief investment officer of BCV Asset Management Inc. in Winnipeg believes it isn’t that the Bank of Canada is worried about current levels – instead, it’s trying to temper expectations going forward.

“They’re trying to convince people not to get overly aggressive again, setting up an overvalued asset class with borrowed money.”

Mr. Demarin doesn’t think markets are overvalued because “they were sold down as if we were going into a Great Depression and the markets were going to collapse in on themselves.”

Vincent Delisle of Scotia Capital Inc. echoes that theme and says he believes earnings expectations are still conservative.

At roughly the same time the Bank of Canada released its report, Millan Mulraine of TD Securities Inc. published an analysis on how the recent stock-market rally was in many ways policy-induced by the world’s central banks.

The Bank of Canada need not spend too much time looking in the mirror, however, for a couple of reasons: in the grand scheme of things, the Bank of Canada is “a peripheral bank,” said Mr. Mulraine. And while the central bank certainly eased constraints, its actions paled in comparison to the grand central banks on the world stage, the U.S. Federal Reserve and, to a lesser extent, the Bank of England and European Central Bank. They “flooded the market with liquidity” in response to the global banking crisis, he said.

The analysts argue that the Canadian equity markets are generally more dependent on external global forces like the U.S. economy or worldwide commodities demand. Mr. Delisle noted a reason to watch the Bank of Canada’s actions, however.

“Once you get the Bank of Canada statement saying the economy is fine and they want to raise rates, the Fed will probably be thinking the same thing,” he said. And that will mean a whole different outlook for equity markets.