Canadian international merchandise trade, December 2019

Canada's merchandise exports rose 1.9% in December, mostly on higher crude oil exports, while imports edged up 0.2%. As a result, Canada's merchandise trade deficit with the world narrowed from $1.2 billion in November to $370 million in December.

Total exports for 2019 rose 1.7%, a slowdown from the gains in 2018 (+6.3%) and 2017 (+5.4%). Compared with the previous year, total imports were up 1.0% in 2019, also a deceleration from 2018 (+5.7%) and 2017 (+4.9%). The trade deficit totalled $18.3 billion in 2019, the smallest deficit since 2014, when the last annual surplus was observed.

This has been excerpted from a 5 February 2020 release by Statistics Canada.