Canada Posts $3b Trade Deficit

Canada posted a record trade deficit of C$4.1 billion ($3.1 billion) in September but the figure was boosted by the one-off import of machinery for an oil project, Statistics Canada said on Friday.

The deficit—the 25th in a row—was much larger than the C$1.70 billion shortfall forecast by analysts in a Reuters poll.

Statscan said the deficit would have been C$1.2 billion had it not been for a jump in imports of machinery, much of it accounted for by a South Korean module destined for an offshore oil rig. That helped push imports up by 4.7%, the biggest month-on-month gain in more than six years.

Total exports edged up by just 0.1%. Exports to the United States, which accounted for 74.4% of all Canadian exports in September, fell by 0.6% while imports dropped by 1.1%. As a result, Canada’s trade surplus with the United States grew to C$2.7 billion from C$2.6 billion in August.

Statistics Canada also said the economy gained 44,000 net new jobs in October but the increase was entirely due to part-time employment.

The overall increase was driven by a gain of 67,000 part-time jobs for the month, while the number of full-time jobs fell by 23,000. The unemployment rate held steady at 7% as more people entered the labor market.

Economists had expected a loss of 10,000 jobs and the unemployment rate to remain unchanged, according to Thomson Reuters.

The increase in October follows a gain of some 67,000 jobs in September that saw additions in both part-time and full-time employment.