The gap between what Canada buys from the rest of the world and what it sells expanded to an all-time record of $3 billion in March as Canadians imported a lot more consumer goods during the month, at the same time as Canadian exports such as oil plunged.
Statistics Canada said the gulf between exports and imports widened to $3 billion in March, up from $2.2 billion the month before. That figure is itself far larger than the $984-million trade deficit originally reported, which the data agency explained by saying "as estimates of exports of energy products were updated with administrative and survey data as they became available."
Imports increased 2.2% in March to $45.5 billion, while exports only ticked up 0.4% to $42.5 billion. In volume terms, exports were up by 1.9%. But prices for the things Canadians sell to the world declined by 1.5%
An increase in the export of car parts wasn't enough to offset continued retrenchment in energy products, which declined by 8.9% to $6.9 billion. Within that, the biggest laggard was refined petroleum energy products, down 29.7% to $855 million, while exports of natural gas declined 16.2% and crude oil and crude bitumen only declined by 2.7%.
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