OTTAWA, May 17 (Xinhua) -- International transactions in securities generated a net outflow of 18 billion Canadian dollars from the Canadian economy in March 2021, according to Statistics Canada on Monday.
Canadian investment in foreign securities totaled 21.2 billion Canadian dollars in March while foreign investment in Canadian securities was 3.2 billion Canadian dollars. As a consequence, 18 billion Canadian dollars flowed out of the Canadian economy in the month.
The outflow of funds totaled 24.7 billion Canadian dollars in the first quarter, the largest amount since the fourth quarter of 2007.
Canadian acquisitions of foreign securities increased to 21.2 billion Canadian dollars in March. This followed investments totaling 13.1 billion Canadian dollars in February and 3.1 billion Canadian dollars in January.
After a record divestment in March 2020, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadian investors have acquired a total of 122.8 billion Canadian dollars of foreign securities since May 2020.
Canadian investors added 11.8 billion Canadian dollars of U.S. shares to their holdings in March, following an investment of 12.3 billion Canadian dollars in February. Investment activity in both months focused on shares of large-capitalization technology firms and investment fund shares tracking broad market indexes.
Non-resident investors added 3.2 billion of Canadian securities to their holdings in March. The activity over the month reflected continued strong foreign acquisitions of shares, moderated by net retirements of private corporate bonds.
Foreign investment in Canadian shares remained strong in March to reach 10.6 billion Canadian dollars, compared with 9.5 billion Canadian dollars in February.
After focusing on shares of Canadian banks in February, foreign acquisitions mainly targeted shares of trade and transportation, as well as non-bank financial industries in March.
One Canadian dollar is about 0.79 U.S. dollar. Enditem
