Brief Overview Of Canadian Economy
In the list of countries, enjoying economic freedom comes the name of Canada as well. Canadian economy is much alike the economy of United States in its market-based approach. The country of Canada has one of very low inflation rates in the world; according to 2010 estimates till date the inflation rate is around 1.4% annually. However, the ongoing global recession has not spared the economy of Canada as well. Canada’s population below poverty line is next to null; this is because Canadian government takes special care about equal distribution of wealth.
Nearly all the major development sectors are covered by Canadian economy be it agriculture, industry or service sector. Approximately, agriculture sector contributes 2.1%, industry sector contributes 28.8% and services sector contributes 69.1% of all in the Canadian economy. Moreover, Canada is a member of Group of Eight known as G8 where it has the lowest governmental debt as compared to all the other seven members. According to most recent reports issued, the national unemployment rate in Canada is standing around 8.1% and if you measure the unemployment rate according to the concept of United States of America, it further decreases to 7.2%.
The economy is taking leaps and bounds owing to its, some of the most professional, hard working and determined work force. If we roughly estimate then around 2% of labor force is employed in agriculture sector, around 13% in manufacturing sector, around 6% in construction sector, around 76% in services sector and around 3% in all other sectors. A little over 69 of the world’s largest companies are present in Canada and operating world widely. Plus you need not be surprised if we say that Canada stands at 8th place among the list of the most fertile land for business purposes. The reason for this is predominantly the financial security, the peace loving nation and the unique infrastructure of Canada.
Canadian economy consists of many small and large industries; the main industries of Canada include food products, chemicals, petroleum, fish products, transportation equipment, processed and unprocessed minerals, paper products, wood products, and natural gas. Economy of Canada has a large international market with lot of foreign trading partners. Canadian economy heavily depends upon the exports and imports; the main export partners of Canada are United States, United Kingdom and China, with United States being the leading partner. Around 30% of the total GDP of Canada is due its exports as it exports around 78.8% to US, 2.8% to UK and about 2.1% to China.
The main goods exported from Canada include industrial machinery, telecommunications equipment, motor vehicles, parts, timber, aircraft, electronics, chemicals, fertilizers, plastics, wood pulp, natural gas, petroleum, aluminum , electricity. Among these exports, around 58% constitutes the exports relating to agriculture sector, energy, forestry and mining while about 38% is due to the exports of automotive products, machinery and manufacturing artifacts etc. As mentioned earlier, Canada is proud to be the biggest exporter to one of the most advanced countries and the super power; US, as around 63% of total Canadian imports are exported to the US.