Economy - overview:
As an affluent, high-tech industrial society in the trillion-dollar class, Canada resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and affluent living standards. Since World War II, the impressive growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. The 1989 US-Canada Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which includes Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US, its principle trading partner. Canada enjoys a substantial trade surplus with the US, which absorbs nearly 80% of Canadian exports each year. Canada is the US's largest foreign supplier of energy, including oil, gas, uranium, and electric power. Given its great natural resources, skilled labor force, and modern capital plant, Canada has enjoyed solid economic growth, and prudent fiscal management has produced consecutive balanced budgets from 1997 to 2007. In 2008, growth slowed sharply as a result of the global economic downturn, US housing slump, plunging auto sector demand, and a drop in world commodity prices. Public finances, too, are set to deteriorate for the first time in a decade. Tight global credit conditions have further restrained business and housing investment, despite the conservative lending practices and strong capitalization that made Canada's major banks among the most stable in the world.
GDP (purchasing power parity):
$1.307 trillion (2008 est.)
$1.299 trillion (2007)
$1.265 trillion (2006)
note: data are in 2008 US dollars
GDP (official exchange rate):
$1.564 trillion (2008 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
0.6% (2008 est.)
2.7% (2007 est.)
3.1% (2006 est.)
GDP - per capita (PPP):
$39,300 (2008 est.)
$39,400 (2007 est.)
$38,700 (2006 est.)
note: data are in 2008 US dollars
GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 2%
industry: 28.4%
services: 69.6% (2008 est.)
Labor force:
18.18 million (2008 est.)
Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture 2%, manufacturing 13%, construction 6%, services 76%, other 3% (2006)
Unemployment rate:
6.1% (2008 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 2.6%
highest 10%: 24.8% (2000)
Distribution of family income - Gini index:
32.1 (2005)
Investment (gross fixed):
22.6% of GDP (2008 est.)
Budget:
revenues: $608.3 billion
expenditures: $606 billion (2008 est.)
Public debt:
62.3% of GDP (2008 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
1% (January 2009 est.)
Central bank discount rate:
3.5% (January 2009)
Commercial bank prime lending rate:
6.1% (31 December 2007)
Stock of money:
$391.6 billion (31 December 2007)
Stock of quasi money:
$1.381 trillion (31 December 2007)
Stock of domestic credit:
$2.382 trillion (31 December 2007)
Market value of publicly traded shares:
$2.187 trillion (31 December 2007)
Agriculture - products:
wheat, barley, oilseed, tobacco, fruits, vegetables; dairy products; forest products; fish
Industries:
transportation equipment, chemicals, processed and unprocessed minerals, food products, wood and paper products, fish products, petroleum and natural gas
Industrial production growth rate:
-1% (2008 est.)
Electricity - production:
612.6 billion kWh (2007 est.)
Electricity - consumption:
530 billion kWh (2006 est.)
Electricity - exports:
50.12 billion kWh (2007 est.)
Electricity - imports:
19.66 billion kWh (2007 est.)
Oil - production:
3.425 million bbl/day (2007 est.)
Oil - consumption:
2.371 million bbl/day (2007 est.)
Oil - exports:
2.225 million bbl/day (2005)
Oil - imports:
1.229 million bbl/day (2005)
Oil - proved reserves:
178.6 billion bbl
note: includes oil sands (1 January 2008 est.)
Natural gas - production:
187 billion cu m (2007 est.)
Natural gas - consumption:
92.9 billion cu m (2007 est.)
Natural gas - exports:
107.3 billion cu m (2007 est.)
Natural gas - imports:
13.2 billion cu m (2007 est.)
Natural gas - proved reserves:
1.648 trillion cu m (1 January 2008 est.)
Current account balance:
$12.82 billion (2008 est.)
Exports:
$461.8 billion f.o.b. (2008 est.)
Exports - commodities:
motor vehicles and parts, industrial machinery, aircraft, telecommunications equipment; chemicals, plastics, fertilizers; wood pulp, timber, crude petroleum, natural gas, electricity, aluminum
Exports - partners:
US 78.9%, UK 2.8%, China 2.1% (2007)
Imports:
$436.7 billion f.o.b. (2008 est.)
Imports - commodities:
machinery and equipment, motor vehicles and parts, crude oil, chemicals, electricity, durable consumer goods
Imports - partners:
US 54.1%, China 9.4%, Mexico 4.2% (2007)
Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
$41.08 billion (2007 est.)
Debt - external:
$758.6 billion (30 June 2007)
Stock of direct foreign investment - at home:
$586.6 billion (2008 est.)
Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad:
$547.2 billion (2008 est.)
Exchange rates:
Canadian dollars (CAD) per US dollar - 1.0364 (2008 est.), 1.0724 (2007), 1.1334 (2006), 1.2118 (2005), 1.301 (2004)
