- Prior was -0.31B
- A surplus of $496 million in January
- Exports 62.29B vs 64.07B prior
- Imports 61.79Bvs 64.39B prior
- Canada's merchandise trade surplus with the United States widened slightly from $8.6 billion in December to $8.8 billion in January.
The stronger trade balance is nice but the drops in both imports and exports are concerning and speak to a slowdown in the economy. The $61.79 billion in imports were the lowest since February 2022. The weakness was focused on consumer goods, which fell 7.1% though this may have been due to some unusual strength in December in pharmaceuticals that reversed in January. Excluding pharmaceutical products, imports of consumer goods were down 3.8% in January.
