OTTAWA — Canada’s goods trade surplus hit $1.1 billion in September as export growth, boosted by wheat and crude oil, outpaced import growth, Statistics Canada said on Thursday.

The federal agency also revised its August data to show a surplus of $550 million, compared to an initial surplus of $1.5 billion.

“Canada posted its ninth straight trade surplus in September as the depreciation of the loonie boosted exports,” wrote Shelly Kaushik, an economist at the Bank of Montreal, in a report.

“Unfortunately, this latest result also increases domestic inflationary pressures, which will keep the Bank of Canada on high alert. While weaker commodity prices have weighed on nominal flows in recent months, trading volumes are expected to contribute to growth in the third quarter.”

Total exports rose 1.3% to $66.4 billion in September, according to Statistics Canada.

Exports of agricultural and fishery products and food intermediates rose 16.7% to nearly US$4.9 billion, with wheat exports notably up 65.2% in September.

Energy products exports rose 1.9% to $18.8 billion, with crude oil up 4.0%, boosted by higher volumes. Natural gas exports increased by 10.3%.

Meanwhile, September imports rose 0.4% to $65.2 billion as a 22.7% rise in pharmaceuticals helped push consumer goods imports up 3.7% to $13.7 billion .

Imports of industrial machinery, equipment and parts rose 4.1% to a record high of $7.7 billion, while imports of energy products fell 16.7% to $3.8 billion.

According to Statistics Canada, the Canadian dollar averaged 75.1 US cents in September, down 2.3 US cents from the August average. This is the biggest monthly drop since March 2020.

The agency found that a large proportion of import and export transactions were conducted in US dollars. These transactions must then be converted to Canadian dollars when compiling trade statistics. So when the Canadian dollar depreciates against the US dollar, monthly trade values ​​converted to Canadian dollars are higher, Statistics Canada explained.

Exports in US dollar terms fell 1.7% in September while imports fell 2.5%.

In terms of volume, total exports increased by 1.7% in September while imports fell by 0.8%.

In a separate report, Statistics Canada said the country’s monthly trade deficit in services narrowed to $1.6 billion in September from a deficit of $1.8 billion in August. Services exports rose 2.3% to $12.9 billion and services imports increased slightly by 0.5% to $14.5 billion.

Canada’s combined international trade in goods and services ended with a deficit of $416 million in September, compared with a deficit of $1.2 billion in August.