Canadian Current Account Deeper in the Red
May 29, 2009
A trade surplus of just C$ 845 million in 1Q09 was the smallest in just over 30 years and down from C$ 12.02 billion per quarter in 2006-8. However, due to a 35% contraction of payments on net foreign investments in Canada, the C$ 9.056 billion current account deficit was not quite as big as forecast. As a percent of GDP, the current account swung from a surplus of 1.6% in the first half of 2008 to a deficit of roughly 2.5% last quarter. Collapsing U.S. demand for Canadian goods and services especially in lumber, autos and energy will be reflected in hugely negative first-quarter GDP growth. The consensus forecast for this indicator, which gets released Monday at 12:30 GMT, is a figure around minus 6.5% at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate. In 4Q08, GDP fell 3.4% saar.
Copyright 2009 Larry Greenberg. All rights reserved. No secondary distribution without express permission.
Tags: Canadian Dollar
ShareThis
