Current Account

The Current Account is Statistics Canada's quarterly record of economic deals between residents and non-residents. It covers businesses, governments, non-profit institutions and households resident in Canada. It sits inside Canada's Balance of International Payments, statistical programme record 1534, which follows the Sixth Edition of the International Monetary Fund payments manual.

It adds up goods, services such as travel, primary income such as pay and returns, and secondary income such as gifts with no return payment. It is not goods trade alone and not a stock of wealth or debt, which belongs to the separate International Investment Position stock report.

The reference period is one calendar quarter. Forms are mailed on its last business day and due within 4 weeks plus 2 weeks of follow up. Quarterly forms go to about 1000 firms and annual forms to about 6000 firms.

Results appear about 60 days after quarter end at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time in The Daily bulletin, which posts Monday to Friday except holidays. No weekday is promised.

Each release also brings the capital account for capital transfers and the financial account for investment flows, plus charts, table 36-10-0018-01, and definitions. Each quarter revises earlier quarters of the same year, Q3 revises back 3 years, and wider fixes arrive only in comprehensive revisions.

4 parts drive the balance, and each part equals its own receipts minus payments.

• Goods: exports minus imports of goods, priced at the exporter border including freight to that border, adjusted for ownership and timing.
• Services: travel for short visits and longer study and health stays, freight and passenger transport, business services, and embassy and military post spending.
• Primary income: pay for cross border workers plus investment returns such as profits, dividends, interest, and income on loans deposits and reserves.
• Secondary income: gifts with no return payment such as aid and tax withholdings, while migrant funds and debt forgiveness sit in the capital account.

The Daily published the Q4 2022 example on Monday, February 27, 2023. The seasonally adjusted deficit was 10.6, up 2.2 from the prior quarter in billions of Canadian dollars. The investment income deficit rose 2.7 to 5.3 as foreign profits in Canada grew and net interest payments rose.

Over the same quarter the goods and services deficit narrowed 0.4 to 2.8, so income weakness outweighed trade improvement. For full year 2022 the deficit was 10.8, up 4.1, beside a goods surplus of 22.0, up 17.3.

1. Credits and debits: every receipt such as exports or income earned is a credit, and payment such as imports or income paid is a debit. Double entry accounting records each side.
2. Sub balances: each part equals receipts minus payments, giving a goods balance, a services balance, a primary income balance, and a secondary income balance.
3. Total: the Current Account balance equals the 4 sub balances added together. It is total current receipts minus total current payments, so a positive sum is a surplus and a negative sum is a deficit.
4. Seasonal adjustment: the headline is seasonally adjusted using the X-12 ARIMA seasonal filter program. Most goods, services and secondary series are adjusted, while less than half of investment income is adjusted. The financial account is published unadjusted.
5. Check: in theory net lending from current plus capital accounts should match net lending from the financial account. In practice the gap is published as statistical discrepancy, meaning net errors and omissions.
6. Example goods and services: goods receipts 150 minus payments 155 give minus 5, and services receipts 30 minus payments 32 give minus 2.
7. Example income and total: primary income 18 minus 20 is minus 2 and secondary 2 minus 3 is minus 1. The sum is minus 10, which is a deficit of 10.