Economy Overview
As a high-tech industrial society in the trillion-dollar class, Canada resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high 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 merchandise exports each year. Canada is the US's largest foreign supplier of energy, including oil, gas, and electric power, and a top source of US uranium imports. Given its abundant natural resources, highly 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 early intervention by the Bank of Canada and the financial sector's tradition of conservative lending practices and strong capitalization. Canada achieved marginal growth in 2010-14 and plans to balance the budget by 2015 despite the recent drop in oil prices. In addition, the country's petroleum sector is rapidly expanding, because Alberta's oil sands significantly boosted Canada's proven oil reserves. Canada now ranks third in the world in proved oil reserves behind Saudi Arabia and Venezuela and is the world’s fifth-largest oil producer.
Agriculture Products
wheat, barley, oilseed, tobacco, fruits, vegetables; dairy products; fish; forest products
Industries
transportation equipment, chemicals, processed and unprocessed minerals, food products, wood and paper products, fish products, petroleum, natural gas
Industrial Production Growth Rate
2% (2014 est.)
Labor Force
19.21 million (2014 est.)
Labor Force by Occupation
Agriculture: 2%
Manufacturing: 13%
Construction: 6%
Services: 76%
Other: 3% (2006 est.)
Unemployment Rate
7.1% (2013 est.)
Population Below Poverty Line
9.4%
Household Income or Consumption by Percentage Share
Lowest 10%: 2.6%
Highest 10%: 24.8% (2000)
Distribution of Family Income Gini Index
31.5 (1994)
Budget
Revenues: $675.1 billion
Expenditures: $717.1 billion (2014 est.)
Public Debt
93.5% of GDP (2013 est.)
Central Bank Discount Rate
0.25% (31 December 2009)
Commercial Bank Prime Lending Rate
Stock of Narrow Money
$638.5 billion (31 December 2013 est.)
Stock of Broad Money
$1.47 trillion (31 December 2013 est.)
Stock of Domestic Credit
$3.044 trillion (31 December 2013 est.)
Market Value of Publicly Traded Shares
$2.16 trillion (31 December 2010 est.)
Reserves of Foreign Exchange and Gold
$71.94 billion (31 December 2013 est.)
Debt External
$1.191 trillion (31 December 2011 est.)
Stock of Direct Foreign Investment at Home
$993.2 billion (31 December 2013 est.)
Stock of Direct Foreign Investment Abroad
$1.153 trillion (31 December 2013 est.)
Exchange Rates
1.0302 (2010 est.)
