Canada Runs A Trade Deficit For Sixth Consecutive Month

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Meanwhile, here are the major economic headlines from the last week:

• Canada continued to run a trade deficit with the rest of the world in August. The country posted a merchandise-trade deficit of C$1.1 billion, a number that was higher than the C$500 million deficit expected by economists and that represented the sixth consecutive monthly deficit. Goods exports declined, falling one percent from July. Good imports increased 0.3 percent, meanwhile. Read the full report at this link.
• Employers in Canada added 47,000 jobs in September while the unemployment rate fell 0.1 percentage points to 6.5 percent. September marked the first decline in the country’s jobless rate since January. The labor force participation rate, which is the proportion of the population aged 15 and older who are employed or looking for work, fell 0.2 percentage points to 64.9 percent, meanwhile.
• U.S. wholesale inventories increased by 0.1 percent from July 2024 to August and 0.6 percent from August 2023 to August 2024. Wholesale sales declined by 0.1 percent for the month and the inventory-to-sales ratios remained at 1.35. Read the full report at this link.
• The number of people who applied for U.S. unemployment benefits for the first time stood at 258,000 during the week that ended Oct. 5, a figure that was up by 33,000 from the week before. Averaged over the past four weeks, first-time claims rose to 231,000. In all, nearly 1.861 million people claimed jobless benefits during the week that ended Sept. 28, a number that was up by 42,000 from the week before.
• In other economic news: the U.S. Consumer Price Index increased 0.2 percent from August 2024 to September 2024 and 2.4 percent from September 2023 to September 2024; the U.S. Producer Price Index rose 0.2 percent between August and September and were up 1.8 percent year-over-year.