Canadian Trade, Surplus Levels Soar in December

Economic engine | BCBusiness
Shipments of engines as well as aircraft and machinery helped grow Canadian exports by 4.5 per cent in December.

For the first time since the 2009 financial crisis, Canadian trade and surplus showed strong signs of bouncing back.

While Canada wasn’t hit as hard during the recent recession as other nations, some economic indicators are just now hitting pre-2009 levels.
 
According to Statistics Canada, imports and exports made significant gains in December pushing Canada’s trade surplus for the final month of 2011 to $2.7 billion. The trade surplus in the previous month was just at $1.2 billion.
 
Specifically, exports grew to $42 billion and imports increased to $39.3 billion (4.5 per cent and 0.8 per cent, respectively). These are the highest posted levels since October 2008.
 
Another encouraging statistic shows exports to our largest trading partner, the United States, grew 5.3 per cent to $30.2 billion. Our exports to other nations reached a record of $11.8 billion, or 2.5 per cent hike from the previous month.
 
Experts attribute the significant gain in exports to aircraft, engines and machinery parts.
 
These numbers, while very dry, shows our national trading environment is strong and hopefully indicates a solid economic showing for 2012.