Canadians sent their money offshore in ever increasing numbers last month.
Figures released Wednesday morning show that Canadian investors bought up $17.4 billion of foreign securities in December, a second straight month of strong investment abroad. Meanwhile, foreign investors reduced their holdings of Canadian securities by $1.4 billion, most of those instruments federal government debt securities.
StatsCan also reports that Canadian investors added $9.7 billion of foreign equities to their portfolios in December, mainly non-U.S. foreign shares. This was the largest monthly acquisition of these instruments by Canadians since December 2000. Most major foreign equity markets declined in December, as U.S. stock prices descended 1.8%.
The agency also reports that Canadian acquisitions of foreign debt securities totaled $7.8 billion in December, largely in U.S. bonds. Canadians went in for $3.4 billion of U.S. corporate bonds, the bulkiest such investment since March 2007. Holdings of U.S. Treasury bonds were up by $3 billion in December, following strong investments in these instruments in November.
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