Canada's international transactions in securities, January 2025
Released: 2025-03-17
Foreign investors acquired $7.9 billion of Canadian securities in January, led by the highest monthly investment in the Canadian bond market since April 2020. Meanwhile, Canadian investors reduced their holdings of foreign securities by $3.2 billion, mainly of US equity securities.
As a result, international transactions in securities generated a net inflow of funds of $11.1 billion to the Canadian economy in January 2025.
Chart 1
Canada's international transactions in securities
Strong foreign investment in Canadian bonds
Foreign acquisitions of Canadian securities totalled $7.9 billion in January, driven by a $14.5 billion investment in the form of debt securities. Non-resident investors increased their exposure to Canadian bonds by $33.5 billion, the highest investment since April 2020. More than 50% (+$17.2 billion) of the January 2025 investment was in bonds denominated in US dollars. Meanwhile, they decreased their exposure to Canadian money market instruments by $18.9 billion, the largest divestment since February 2024.
In January 2025, the activity in the Canadian bond market reflected foreign acquisitions of $7.3 billion in federal government bonds and $10.8 billion in provincial government bonds, the largest monthly investment on record. At the same time, foreign investors increased their holdings of Canadian corporate bonds by $15.4 billion, the largest investment since April 2022. The activity in January 2025 was mainly in private corporate bonds (+$13.5 billion). This investment followed a large divestment in December 2024, when foreign investors reduced their exposure to federal government enterprises bonds.
Chart 2
Foreign investment in Canadian bonds, by sector of issuer
The divestment in money market instruments in January 2025 followed two months of strong foreign purchases and mainly targeted private corporate paper (-$10.5 billion) and federal government paper (-$8.9 billion), reflecting a reallocation of foreign investment from short-term to long-term debt instruments for these sectors.
In January, the Bank of Canada decreased its policy rate to 3.0% from 3.25%, and the Canadian dollar depreciated by 0.7% against the US dollar.
Non-resident investors reduced their exposure to Canadian shares by $6.6 billion in January, as a result of retirements related to merger and acquisition activities as well as sales on secondary markets. Canadian share prices, as measured by the Standard & Poor's (S&P)/Toronto Stock Exchange composite index, increased by 3.3% in January.
Largest Canadian divestment in foreign shares since March 2022
Canadian investors reduced their exposure to foreign securities in January by $3.2 billion. Significant sales of foreign shares were moderated by sizable acquisitions of foreign debt securities.
Canadian investors sold $17.6 billion of foreign equity securities in January, the largest divestment since March 2022. On a geographical basis, the divestment in January 2025 was comprised of $15.6 billion of US shares and $1.9 billion of non-US shares.
Chart 3
Canadian investment in foreign equity and investment fund shares
Meanwhile, Canadian investors added $14.4 billion of foreign debt securities to their holdings in January, led by a $15.1 billion investment in foreign bonds. Canadian investors acquired $8.4 billion of non-US foreign bonds and $6.7 billion of US bonds. At the same time, investors reduced their holdings of US government money market instruments by $1.4 billion.
Chart 4
Canadian investment in foreign bonds
From January 2024 to January 2025, Canadian investment in foreign bonds totalled $101.9 billion. During the same period, the investment in foreign shares amounted to $8.8 billion.
Focus on Canada and the United States
Following eight consecutive months of significant investment in US securities from February 2024 to September 2024, investment patterns have changed with Canadian investors reducing their exposure to US securities for three of the last four months for a total divestment of $9.5 billion. At the same time, Canadian investors have had four consecutive months of strong investment in non-US foreign securities, totalling $25.0 billion from October 2024 to January 2025.
For more data and insights on areas touched by the socio-economic relationship between Canada and the United States, see the Focus on Canada and the United States webpage.
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Note to readers
The data series on international transactions in securities covers portfolio transactions in equity and investment fund shares, bonds and money market instruments for both Canadian and foreign issues. This activity excludes transactions in equity and debt instruments between affiliated enterprises. These are classified as foreign direct investment in international accounts.
Equity and investment fund shares include common and preferred equities, as well as units or shares of investment funds. For the sake of brevity, the terms "shares" and "equity and investment fund shares" have the same meaning.
Debt securities include bonds and money market instruments.
Bonds have an original term to maturity of more than one year.
Money market instruments have an original term to maturity of one year or less.
Government of Canada paper includes Treasury bills and US-dollar Canada bills.
All values in this release are net transactions unless otherwise stated.
Next release
Data on Canada's international transactions in securities for February will be released on April 17.
Products
The International trade statistics portal is available on Statistics Canada website.
As a complement to this release, the data visualization product "Securities statistics," part of the series Statistics Canada – Data Visualization Products (71-607-X), is available online.
The User Guide: Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts (13-606-G) is also available.
The Methodological Guide: Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts (13-607-X) is available.
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).
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