Following strong increases in January, Canadian merchandise exports and imports decreased in February, reported Statistics Canada on Wednesday.

Exports were down 2.4 per cent, while imports decreased 1.3 per cent. As a result, Canada’s merchandise trade surplus with the world narrowed from $1.2 billion in January to $422 million in February. The February surplus is close to the typical bounds for monthly revisions to imports and exports, said the federal agency.

“After increasing 3.5% in January, total exports fell 2.4 per cent to $65.0 billion in February. All product sections decreased except farm, fishing and intermediate food product exports (+2.1 per cent), which rose for the fifth time in the last six months. In real (or volume) terms, total exports decreased 0.9 per cent, following a 4.8 per cent increase in January,” it said.

“Exports of metal and non-metallic mineral products decreased 5.4 per cent in February. After rising 17.9 per cent in January, exports of unwrought gold, silver and platinum group metals and their alloys—a category mainly composed of unwrought gold—were down 11.5 per cent in February. As in January, refined gold exports to the United Kingdom contributed the most to the monthly change. Exports of unwrought nickel and nickel alloys (-20.0 per cent) also contributed to the decline in this product section in February, largely due to lower exports to Norway.”

After increasing 3.6 per cent in January, total imports fell 1.3% per centto $64.6 billion in February. Despite the monthly decrease, import values remain higher than the November and December 2022 levels, when declines were also observed. In February 2023, eight of the 11 product sections fell. In real (or volume) terms, total imports were down 0.8 per cent, said StatsCan.

(Mario Toneguzzi is Managing Editor of Canada’s Podcast. He has more than 40 years of experience as a daily newspaper writer, columnist, and editor. He worked for 35 years at the Calgary Herald, covering sports, crime, politics, health, faith, city and breaking news, and business. He works as well as a freelance writer for several national publications and as a consultant in communications and media relations/training. Mario was named in 2021 as one of the Top 10 Business Journalists in the World by PR News – the only Canadian to make the list)

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