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(CEP News) Ottawa - Canada's merchandise trade surplus widened to $5.8 billion in August as the dollar value of imports fell more sharply than exports, Statistics Canada reported Friday.
Imports plunged 5.8% from the month before to $37.3 billion in August, the largest monthly percentage drop since December, 1991. Exports fell for the first time in eight months, slipping 1.6% to $43.1 billion, mainly due to falling volumes. The resulting trade surplus was well above the $4.4 billion consensus estimate of analysts and up sharply from the July surplus of $4.2 billion (previously reported as +$4.9 billion). Exports to the United States fell 3.9% in August to $32.5 billion while exports to countries other than the U.S. increased 6% to $10.6 billion. Imports from the U.S. decreased 5.8% from July to $23.9 billion, creating a trade surplus of $8.6 billion in Canada's favour. Imports from the rest of the world fell 5.9% to $13.4 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of $2.8 billion, the narrowest it has been since May of this year. Energy imports were down 24.9% in August from the previous month at $4.3 billion and imports of automotive products fell 14.2% to $6 billion. The value of energy exports, meanwhile, dropped 9.7% from July to $11.3 billion in August and automotive product exports were down 2.6% to $5.3 billion. By Geoff Matthews,
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, edited by Stephen Huebl,
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