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, highly skilled labor force, and modern capital plant, Canada enjoyed solid economic growth from 1993 through 2007. Buffeted by the global economiccrisis, 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 financial sector's tradition of conservative lending practices and strong capitalization. Canada achieved marginal growth in 2010-12 and plans to balance the budget by 2015. In addition, the country's petroleum sector is rapidly becoming an even larger economic driver with Alberta's oil sands significantly boosting Canada's proven oil reserves, ranking the country third in the world behind Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
Agriculture Products
wheat, barley, oilseed, tobacco, fruits, vegetables; dairy products; fish; forest products
Industrial Production Growth Rate
3.7% (2011 est.)country comparison to the world: 86
Labor Force
18.85 million (2012 est.)country comparison to the world: 32
Unemployment Rate
7.3% (2012 est.)country comparison to the world: 82 7.5% (2011 est.)
Population Below Poverty Line
9.4% 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 (2008)
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: 103 31.5 (1994)
Budget
Revenues: $679.3 billion
Expenditures: $746.8 billion (2012 est.)
Public Debt
84.1% of GDP (2012 est.)country comparison to the world: 21 87.4% of GDP (2011 est.) note: figures are for gross general government debt, as opposed to net federal debt; gross general government debt includes both intragovernmental debt and the debt of public entities at the sub-national level
Central Bank Discount Rate
1% (31 December 2010 est.)country comparison to the world: 142 0.25% (31 December 2009 est.)
Commercial Bank Prime Lending Rate
Stock of Narrow Money
$702.3 billion (31 December 2012 est.)country comparison to the world: 9 $622.8 billion (31 December 2011 est.)
Stock of Broad Money
$1.523 trillion (31 December 2012 est.)country comparison to the world: 13 $1.404 trillion (31 December 2011 est.)
Stock of Domestic Credit
$3.046 trillion (31 December 2012 est.)country comparison to the world: 9 $2.838 trillion (31 December 2011 est.)
Market Value of Publicly Traded Shares
$1.907 trillion (31 December 2011)country comparison to the world: 7 $2.16 trillion (31 December 2010) $1.681 trillion (31 December 2009)
Reserves of Foreign Exchange and Gold
$65.82 billion (31 December 2011 est.)country comparison to the world: 29 $57.15 billion (2010 est.)
Debt External
$1.181 trillion (30 June 2011)country comparison to the world: 15 $1.009 trillion (30 June 2010)
Stock of Direct Foreign Investment at Home
$624.5 billion (31 December 2012 est.)country comparison to the world: 10 $576.6 billion (31 December 2011 est.)
Stock of Direct Foreign Investment Abroad
$703 billion (31 December 2012 est.)country comparison to the world: 11 $650.4 billion (31 December 2011 est.)
Exchange Rates
Canadian dollars (CAD) per US dollar -1.001 (2012 est.) 0.9895 (2011 est.) 1.0302 (2010 est.) 1.1431 (2009) 1.0364 (2008)
