(Ottawa) Canada’s merchandise trade balance returned to negative territory in March, posting a deficit of $2.3 billion, the largest since June 2023, according to Statistics Canada reported Thursday.
This result follows a surplus of 476 million in February, which was revised downwards from the first figures released last month which indicated a surplus of 1.4 billion for the month.
Katherine Judge, senior economist at CIBC, said the March figure stood in stark contrast to expectations of a $1.2 billion surplus.
“The downward surprise in March’s trade balance, combined with significant downward revisions to February’s data, now suggest that net trade will act as a slight drag on growth in the first quarter,” M wroteme Judge in a report.
Statistics Canada reported that total exports fell 5.3% in March to $62.6 billion, as exports of raw gold, which reached a record level in February, saw a decline.
The federal agency noted that a large number of high-value shipments of raw gold to the United Kingdom and Switzerland were observed in February and were not repeated in March.
Exports of metal and non-metallic mineral products fell 17.4% in March, while exports of unwrought gold, silver and platinum group metals and their alloys fell 32.5%. %.
Exports of energy products also fell 4.9%, partly due to lower exports of crude oil and bitumen, coinciding with unplanned refinery shutdowns in the US Midwest.
Exports of motor vehicles and parts fell 6.3% in March as several manufacturing plants began retooling their assembly lines to produce new vehicle models.
At the same time, imports fell by 1.2% to 64.8 billion, with imports of electronic and electrical equipment and parts falling by 8.1%.
Imports of metallic ores and non-metallic minerals fell 29.2% in March, their lowest level since September 2021.
In volume terms, total exports fell by 4.7%, while total imports fell by 1.2%.
In a separate release, Statistics Canada said the country’s international services trade deficit widened to $1.0 billion in March, up from $900 million in February. Services exports fell 2% to 16.9 billion and services imports fell 1.4% to 17.9 billion.
Combining Canada’s international trade in goods and services, Statistics Canada said the country’s total trade deficit with the rest of the world was $3.3 billion in March, up from $431 million in February.