Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney says the country's economy is on the right path to recovery "but it's a very long road."

In an exclusive interview with Peter Mansbridge, Carney said the economy is performing as the central bank projected when it said growth would start to return in the second half of the year.

Carney said that initial return to growth is being prompted by fiscal and monetary policy — that is, expanded government spending coupled with low interest rates.

"We’re at, if you will, the easy bit of the growth, and it’s a little early right now to say that we are seeing that self-sustaining private sector growth that is going to carry us up, that’s going to prevent that second dip," Carney said.

He added that it is also too much to say if the economy is expected to go back into retreat.

Carney added that the economy in the United States — our biggest trading partner — is going to be choppy over the next 12 to 18 months.

The U.S. economy, Carney said, has had a big shock, and that the potential of that economy has slowed down. The U.S. will have to become "more of an exporter than an importer, the private sector will rely less on debt and more on income, and all of that will add up to a more difficult environment for Canadian businesses in the U.S," Carney said.

Peter Mansbridge's interview with Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney will be broadcast on Mansbridge One on One on CBC and CBC Newsworld.