Canada's Current-Account Deficit Expands in Second Quarter

Canada's current-account deficit widened in the second quarter following an increase in the amount of imports during the three-month period.

The country's current-account deficit expanded in the second quarter of 2017 to 16.3 billion Canadian dollars ($12.9 billion), Statistics Canada said Wednesday. Market expectations were for a C$17.4 billion deficit, according to economists at Royal Bank of Canada.

In the previous quarter, the deficit stood at C$12.9 billion.

The current account is the broadest indicator of trade in goods and services, and covers items such as employee wages and investment income. A deficit suggests an economy requires capital from abroad to finance its investment and consumption -- and this can put downward pressure on a country's currency.

Canada's current account benefited from the commodity-price boom earlier this decade, but has been in a deficit since the onset last decade of the financial crisis.

Prior to the data release, analysts were counting on a sharp expansion of the current-account deficit.

Overall trade in goods in the April-to-June period stood at a C$5.2 billion deficit, compared with a C$1.9 billion deficit in the previous quarter, Statistics Canada said. Services trade came to a deficit of C$5.5 billion in the quarter, a slight improvement from the C$5.7 billion deficit in the first quarter of the year.

Write to David George-Cosh at david.george-cosh@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 30, 2017 09:13 ET (13:13 GMT)