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.
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
-2.8% (2008 est.)country comparison to the world: 159
Labor Force
18.22 million (2008 est.)country comparison to the world: 32
Electricity production
620.7 billion kWh (2007 est.)country comparison to the world: 7
Electricity Consumption
536.1 billion kWh (2007 est.)country comparison to the world: 8
Electricity Exports
55.73 billion kWh (2008 est.)
Electricity Imports
23.5 billion kWh (2008 est.)
Unemployment Rate
6.2% (2008 est.)country comparison to the world: 76 6% (2007 est.)
Population Below Poverty Line
10.8%; note - this figure is the Low Income Cut-Off (LICO), a calculation that results in higher figures than found in many comparable economies; Canada does not have an official poverty line (2005)
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)country comparison to the world: 100 31.5 (1994)
Budget
Revenues: $594.1 billion
Expenditures: $573.7 billion (2008 est.)
Public Debt
63.8% of GDP (2008 est.)country comparison to the world: 21 64.2% of GDP (2004 est.)
Central Bank Discount Rate
1.75% (31 December 2008)country comparison to the world: 112 4.5% (31 December 2007)
Commercial Bank Prime Lending Rate
Stock of Domestic Credit
$2.335 trillion (31 December 2008)country comparison to the world: 9 $2.382 trillion (31 December 2007)
Market Value of Publicly Traded Shares
$NA (31 December 2008)country comparison to the world: 7 $2.187 trillion (31 December 2007)$1.701 trillion (31 December 2006)
Reserves of Foreign Exchange and Gold
$43.87 billion (31 December 2008 est.)country comparison to the world: 29 $41.08 billion (31 December 2007 est.)
Debt External
$781.1 billion (31 December 2008)country comparison to the world: 15 $806.9 billion (31 December 2007)
Stock of Direct Foreign Investment at Home
$433.4 billion (31 December 2008 est.)country comparison to the world: 11 $506.9 billion (31 December 2007 est.)
Stock of Direct Foreign Investment Abroad
$520.4 billion (31 December 2008 est.)country comparison to the world: 12 $520.7 billion (31 December 2007 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)
