Canadian Trade Back In the Red
June 10, 2009
Canada recorded a C$ 179 million trade shortfall in April, a C$ 1.2 billion adverse swing from March. Energy commerce accounted for 72.2 % of that deterioration and for 58% of a C$ 5.1 billion deterioration from April 2008. Trade data continue to reflect a severe recession. In the nine months since July 2008, exports have plunged 30.6% including a 5.1% drop between March and April, and imports have slumped 21.6%. The volume of exports dropped 3.2% on month in April, while import volumes edged 0.3% higher. Export weakness in the latest month was spread around broadly: energy off 8.7%, industrial goods and materials down 9.7%, machinery and equipment off 7.0%, and non-auto consumer goods down 5.2%. Exports have been clobbered by a strong Canadian dollar and depressed U.S. demand especially for lumber and energy. Rising commodity prices offer some hope over coming months but from an extremely weakened position. The current account deficit in 1Q equaled 2.5% of GDP, a 4.2-percentage point adverse swing from the second quarter of 2008.
Copyright 2009 Larry Greenberg. All rights reserved. No secondary distribution without express permission.
Tags: Canadian Dollar
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