Economy and investments
The Canadian economy is ranked 10th among the world’s great economies, and Canada is considered one of the richest countries in the European Union countries, it is also a member in the group of eight countries of top economic countries, a member of the free-trade agreement of north America countries, and a member of the international trading committee.
Services sector is among the biggest sectors in Canadian economy with 78% of the labour force, it contains banks, financial markets and real estate .
Canada is one of the active countries in the field of international trading, exports form 30% of the GPD which has reached 1.74 trillion USD according to the latest results, with an average of 0.3% growth rate in 2013, while the yearly individual income reached 42,734 USD, to in the 9th rank worldwide after ranking 8th last year, with 1% inflation rate as of April 2013.
Agriculture forms 2.2% of the GDP, industry decreased from 26.3% to 15.6% and then to 13% of GDP after the economic crisis during the period of 2007-2010, while the services sector reached to 71.5% of the GDP.
The number or working force in Canada is 18.53 million people, 2% of them work in Agriculture, 13% in industry, 6% in construction, 76% in services sector, while the remaining 3% work in other small sectors.
Industry
Canada is one of the biggest industrial countries, among it’s most important industries are:
- Equipment and Machinery, especially in transportation sector.
- Chemicals.
- Raw and manufactured metals.
- Foodstuff
- Wooden products.
- Paper products.
- Fish products.
- Oil and gas.
Big factories of American and Japanese cars are established in the center of Canada, owned by giant Canadian companies such as “ Magna international” and “Lainamar corporation” .
Agriculture
Canada is among the biggest producers and exporters of agricultural products in the world, especially grain and other seeds, Canada exports to USA, Europe and east of Asia.
Exports
In 2011, Canadian Exports mounted to around 447.8 billion USD, the most exported products are cars and car parts, industrial machines, planes, communications, chemicals, plastic tools, fertilizers, wood, Raw oil, natural gas, electricity and Aluminium.
United States of America is the main market for the Canadian products with 74% of the total Canadian exports, and 4.1% to the United Kingdom.
Imports
In 2011, Canadian imports reached a total of 446 billion USD, the most imported products are equipment's, machines, cars, spare parts, raw oil, chemicals, electricity and consumer products.
Most of the imports come from USA with 49.5% of the total Canadian imports, 11% comes from china and 5.5% comes from Mexico.
Total debt of Canada reached around 1.181 trillion Canadian dollar, while the defect in the Canadian federal budget in 2009 -2010 reached 36.2 billion Canadian dollars, though it’s gradually decreasing after the efforts of the government and the plan to eliminate this defect in 2015.
Federal government income
The federal government income in 2009 reached 237.357 billion Canadian dollars mostly from different types of taxes (income tax, consumer tax, sales tax) and from direct government investments, Canada is one of the supporting countries with supports over 4.1 billion dollars in 2010, The total Canadian reserves of foreign currency rate of $ 63.01 billion. And Canada's credit rating is considered one of the top class (AAA) on the local and international levels.
Natural resources
Canada has enormous reserves of natural resources that is, forests wood, particularly those in the province, "British Columbia", and there are oil and gas in "Alberta" province and " newfoundland labrador ". and there are in the north "Ontario" County mines for many of the minerals such as coal, copper, iron, gold, diamonds, nickel, lead and aluminum. There are in the provinces of the east coast overlooking the Atlantic Ocean enormous fish resources, and there is a large reserve of Uranium.
Canada has vast reserves of natural resources, especially those in the far north. This is in addition to the ongoing and latest of which was the discovery of large quantities of nickel in the Gulf, "Voices", and the prospects for production of natural gas extracted from the rock oil, and Black heavy oil extracted from the sand. The natural reserves of heavy black oil in "Athabasca" area makes Canada in the third of the largest oil reserves after Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
Energy
Canada is one of the few industrial countries that exports energy, and that is due to the enormous natural reserves of oil and gas, especially in “Alberta”, “Saskatoon” and “British Colombia”, Canada uses other “clean energy” types of energy which is generated from river currents, waterfalls and winds. In general, the availability of cheap energy sources led to flourishing a lot of industries such as aluminum.
Investments
of the well promising field of investment in Canada is the cooperation in the arias of culture, education, health, technology, military oil and gas. in addition to the unified investment sector, there are lots of Canadian companies working in infrastructure and master structures.