Canada trade deficit widens in September to Can$3.3bn

OTTAWA: Canada's trade deficit widened in September to Can$3.3 billion (US$2.5 billion) as both exports and imports rose 1.5 percent but remained down from pre-pandemic levels, the national statistical agency said Wednesday.

The figure was up from a Can$3.2 billion deficit in August, which Statistics Canada revised significantly upward in this month's report. Economics had forecast a Can$2.2 billion trade deficit in September.

The deficit, commented CIBC analyst Royce Mendes, was "materially worse" than expected.

"While the main positive from the report was that two-way trade rose in September, suggesting that activity continued to recover, the wider-than-anticipated deficit indicates that Canada's trade challenges are not going away anytime soon," he said in a research note.

According to the data, Canadian exports rose to Can$45.5 billion in the month, led by higher sales abroad of lumber -- which rose for a fifth consecutive month to its highest level in 14 years -- and aircrafts.

Short supplies and higher demand for lumber for construction work and home renovations combined to push up prices, while the uptick in aircraft exports was attributed to more purchases of business jets in the United States, Norway and Britain.

Higher exports of passenger cars and light trucks were also recorded in the month.

These increases, however, were attenuated by a drop in exports of medication used in the treatment of depressive disorders, and of precious metals and gold coins to the United States.

Meanwhile, imports rose mainly on higher crude oil imports as Canadian refineries purchased more crude oil from the US state of Louisiana in particular, to Can$48.8 billion.

Imports of general-purpose machinery and equipment, as well as logging, construction, mining, and oil and gas field machinery and equipment were also up.

Increased imports of lubricants and other petroleum refinery products included diluents used by the Canadian oil industry to ship heavy crude oil by pipeline to the United States.

Those increases were partially offset by lower imports of cellphones blamed on pandemic disruptions of the introductions of new models.

Canada's trade surplus with the United States -- its neighbour and largest trading partner -- narrowed from Can$2.9 billion in August to Can$2.0 billion in September.