Canada’s imports and exports both went down in March. Statistics Canada said the trade surplus rose to $351-mln from $273-mln in February as imports declined at a faster rate than exports.

Exports fell by 0.4 per cent, the third consecutive monthly decline. They accounted for approximately 31 per cent of gross domestic product in 2011.

Analysts noted the volume of exports climbed 1.0 per cent from February, while imports were up 0.6 per cent.

 “If you take (out) the decline in crude oil, which is mostly due to prices during the month, we actually had a banner month for exports,” Peter Hall, chief economist at Export Development Canada (EDC), told Reuters.

Since the 2008 recession, Canada’s exporters have had a hard time dealing with weak markets as well as the continuing negative effect of the strong Canadian dollar.

Exports to the U.S., fell by 2.1 percent, the third month-on-month drop in a row. Exports to the U.S took 73 per cent of all Canadian exports in March.

Canada’s trade surplus with the U.S. dropped to $4.62-bln in March from $4.89-bln in February.

_______

Nicole Siena is an intern for the  Toronto Standard. Follow her on Twitter at  @nicolesiena

For more, follow us on Twitter at @TorontoStandard and subscribe to our  newsletter