Canadian international merchandise trade, May 2021

In May, Canada's merchandise imports increased 2.1%, while exports fell 1.6%. As a result, Canada's merchandise trade balance moved from a surplus of $462 million in April to a deficit of $1.4 billion in May.

Consult the "International trade monthly interactive dashboard" to explore the most recent results of Canada's international merchandise trade in an interactive format.

Exchange rate reaches a peak in May

A large proportion of import and export transactions are completed in US dollars and must be converted to Canadian dollars to compile monthly trade statistics. When the Canadian dollar appreciates against the US dollar, converted monthly trade values in Canadian dollars are lower.

In May, the average value of the Canadian dollar increased 2.4 cents US compared with the average value in April to 82.5 cents US. This was the largest monthly increase since July 2017. When expressed in US dollars, Canadian imports were up 5.2% in May, and exports rose 1.4%...

This has been excerpted from a2 July 2021 release by Statistics Canada.