Canada's international transactions in securities, October 2025
Released: 2025-12-17
Foreign investors added $46.6 billion of Canadian securities to their holdings in October, the highest investment since March 2022. Meanwhile, Canadian investors reduced their holdings of foreign securities by $11.6 billion in October, the first divestment since January 2025.
As a result, international transactions in securities generated a net inflow of funds of $58.2 billion in the Canadian economy in October, the highest net inflow since March 2022.
Chart 1
Canada's international transactions in securities
Strong investment in Canadian securities
Foreign acquisitions of Canadian securities reached $46.6 billion in October, the highest investment since March 2022. The activity in October 2025 was led by strong foreign purchases of both debt securities (+$34.0 billion) and equity securities (+$12.6 billion). Since July, the investment activity has rebounded significantly as non-resident investors purchased $126.9 billion worth of Canadian securities, mostly in the form of bonds. This was in contrast with the general divestment pattern observed in the first half of the year, a period during which foreign investors reduced their holdings of Canadian securities by $22.4 billion.
Non-resident investors acquired $38.6 billion of Canadian bonds in October. The investment was led by purchases of private corporate bonds (+$17.8 billion), largely in the form of new bonds denominated in US dollars, and federal government bonds (+$16.2 billion). Meanwhile, foreign investors reduced their holdings of Canadian money market instruments by $4.6 billion, largely private corporate instruments. Foreign acquisitions of federal government paper moderated the overall divestment in money market instruments in the month. The Bank of Canada decreased its policy rate by 0.25% to 2.25% in October.
Chart 2
Foreign investment in Canadian debt securities, by sector of issuer
Foreign investors increased their holdings of Canadian equity securities by $12.6 billion in October, the highest investment since September 2024. Strong acquisitions on the secondary market were moderated by retirements of shares resulting from merger and acquisition activities in October 2025. On a sector basis, foreign investors acquired shares mainly from the energy and mining (+$7.4 billion), and the finance and insurance (+$4.0 billion) sectors. These acquisitions were moderated by a divestment in shares from the trade and transportation sector. By the end of October, Canadian share prices, as measured by the Standard & Poor's (S&P)/Toronto Stock Exchange composite index, increased by 0.8% compared with the end of September.
Chart 3
Foreign investment in Canadian equity and investment fund shares
First Canadian divestment in foreign securities since January 2025
Canadian investors reduced their exposure to foreign securities by $11.6 billion in October, the highest divestment since January 2023. The divestment in October 2025 targeted both equity and debt securities, mainly US instruments. October marked a first month of divestment in foreign securities after eight consecutive months of purchases totalling $118.3 billion.
In October, Canadian investors sold $6.1 billion in foreign shares. Sales of US shares (-$6.6 billion) were slightly moderated by purchases of non-US shares (+$0.4 billion). The divestment in US shares in October followed strong acquisitions in both August (+$16.0 billion) and September (+$10.0 billion). By the end of October, US share prices, as measured by the S&P 500 composite index, had increased by 2.3% compared with the end of September.
Chart 4
Canadian investment in foreign equity and investment fund shares
Activity in foreign debt securities resulted in a divestment of $5.4 billion in October, mainly in US government bonds (-$6.9 billion). Meanwhile, Canadian investors increased their holdings of US government paper by $0.6 billion.
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 November 2025 will be released on January 16, 2026.
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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