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 principal trading partner. Canada enjoys a substantial trade surplus with the US, which absorbs about three-fourths 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 enjoyed solid economic growth from 1993 through 2007. Buffeted by the global economic crisis, the economy dropped into a sharp recession in the final months of 2008, and Ottawa posted its first fiscal deficit in 2009 after 12 years of surplus. Canada's major banks, however, emerged from the financial crisis of 2008-09 among the strongest in the world, owing to the country's tradition of conservative lending practices and strong capitalization. During 2010, Canada's economy grew only 3%, because of weak exports.
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
5.8% (2010 est.)country comparison to the world: 57
Labor Force
18.59 million (2010 est.)country comparison to the world: 31
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
8% (2010 est.)country comparison to the world: 91 8.3% (2009 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)
Public Debt
82.9% of GDP (2010 est.)country comparison to the world: 16 82.5% of GDP (2009 est.)
Central Bank Discount Rate
0.5% (31 December 2009)country comparison to the world: 132 1.75% (31 December 2008)
Commercial Bank Prime Lending Rate
Stock of Narrow Money
$560.8 billion (31 December 2010 est)country comparison to the world: 10 $470.9 billion (31 December 2009 est)
Stock of Broad Money
$1.469 trillion (31 December 2010 est.)country comparison to the world: 12 $1.144 trillion (31 December 2009 est.)
Stock of Domestic Credit
$2.963 trillion (31 December 2010 est.)country comparison to the world: 10 $2.606 trillion (31 December 2009 est.)
Market Value of Publicly Traded Shares
$1.681 trillion (31 December 2009)country comparison to the world: 10 $1.002 trillion (31 December 2008)$2.187 trillion (31 December 2007)
Reserves of Foreign Exchange and Gold
$NA (31 December 2010 est.)$54.36 billion (31 December 2009 est.)
Debt External
$1.009 trillion (30 June 2010)country comparison to the world: 15 $781.1 billion (31 December 2008)
Stock of Direct Foreign Investment at Home
$528.7 billion (31 December 2010 est.)country comparison to the world: 10 $494.6 billion (31 December 2009 est.)
Stock of Direct Foreign Investment Abroad
$602.5 billion (31 December 2010 est.)country comparison to the world: 11 $576.2 billion (31 December 2009 est.)
Exchange Rates
Canadian dollars (CAD) per US dollar - 1.0346 (2010), 1.1431 (2009), 1.0364 (2008), 1.0724 (2007), 1.1334 (2006)
