"It looks like the economy cooled in late 2014, early 2015 because of the fall in oil prices and the parts of the economy that are hurt by lower oil prices are reacting much faster than the parts of the economy that will be helped by lower prices, namely the consumer sector"
-Bill Adams, senior international economist at the PNC Financial Services Group
Canada's trade gap widened in December amid rising imports of energy products and sluggish exports growth. Trade deficit almost doubled in the reported month, rising to C$649 million from the revised C$335 million in the prior month. Nevertheless, the shortfall on the trade balance was smaller than the C$1.20 billion expected by the economist. Exports, which makes up around one-third of the Canadian economy, climbed by 1.5% from November, the fastest gain since May and driven by a 13.1% increase in shipments of metal and non-metallic products. This helped offset a 10.3% plunge in the value of energy product exports as oil prices plummeted. Imports also advanced at the fastest pace since May, increasing 2.3% to $44.7-billion, according to Statistics Canada. Shipments to the United States, which accounted for 75.1% of all Canada's exports in December, climbed 0.6% while imports rose by 0.8%. As a result, the trade surplus with the largest trading partner fell to C$3.12 billion from C$3.17 billion in November.
From an annual perspective, Canada's trade balance changed from a $7.2 billion deficit in 2013 to a $5.2 billion surplus in 2014. The value of 2014 imports grew by 7.6% from 2013, while exports increased by 10.3%, Statistics Canada reported.
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