International merchandise trade, by commodity, price and volume indexes, monthly
Monthly price and volume indexes (Fisher formulas, 2012=100 and Paasche/Laspeyres variants) for Canadian international merchandise trade, covering exports and imports across NAPCS commodity sections and seasonal adjustment variants.
About this dataset
- Trade flow: Export, Import
- Accounting basis: Customs, Balance of Payments
- Seasonal adjustment: Unadjusted, Seasonally adjusted
- Index type: Price index, Volume index
- Formula weighting: Paasche current weighted, Laspeyres fixed weighted
- Commodity: 153 NAPCS 2022 categories (13 sections C11–C24, plus detailed 3-digit and 4-digit groups, and Total of all merchandise)
- No services trade — international merchandise (physical goods) only
- No bilateral trading partner breakdown — national total Canadian trade only
- No provincial origin or destination breakdowns
- No direct Fisher index series — must be computed as geometric mean of Laspeyres and Paasche
Measurement notes
- Laspeyres fixed-weighted index: Uses fixed 2017 commodity weights. Reflects pure price changes with a constant basket, but subject to upward substitution bias over long horizons.
- Paasche current-weighted index: Uses current monthly commodity weights. Reflects current expenditure patterns, but basket changes every month.
- Laspeyres volume index: Measures physical quantity changes using fixed 2017 relative prices.
- Fisher index identity: In index theory, Fisher ideal volume = (Value ratio) / (Paasche price). StatCan publishes Laspeyres volume alongside Paasche price so users can decompose nominal value changes.
- Sentinel value 9,999.9: Seldom-traded commodities with negligible volumes in the 2017 base year can mathematically produce astronomical index spikes; StatCan caps these at 9,999.9.
- Customs vs BOP: BOP basis adjusts for timing differences, inland freight to border, and trade in non-monetary gold. Headline GDP trade volumes use BOP basis.
| Column | Type | Non-null | Unique | Mean | Min | Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| REF_DATE | object | 100.0% | 55 | — | 2022-01 | 2026-07 |
| GEO | object | 100.0% | 1 | — | Canada | Canada |
| DGUID | object | 100.0% | 1 | — | 2021A000011124 | 2021A000011124 |
| Trade | object | 100.0% | 2 | — | Export | Import |
| Basis | object | 100.0% | 2 | — | Balance of payments | Customs |
| Seasonal adjustment | object | 100.0% | 2 | — | Seasonally adjusted | Unadjusted |
| Index | object | 100.0% | 2 | — | Price index | Volume index |
| Weighting | object | 100.0% | 2 | — | Laspeyres fixed weighted | Paasche current weighted |
| North American Product Classification System (NAPCS) | object | 100.0% | 153 | — | Agricultural, lawn and garden machinery and equipment [331] | Wood millwork, and wood products not elsewhere classified [462] |
| UOM | object | 100.0% | 1 | — | Index, 2017=100 | Index, 2017=100 |
| UOM_ID | int64 | 100.0% | 1 | 373.0 | 373.0 | 373.0 |
| SCALAR_FACTOR | object | 100.0% | 1 | — | units | units |
| SCALAR_ID | int64 | 100.0% | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| VECTOR | object | 100.0% | 3636 | — | v1566912759 | v1566916394 |
| COORDINATE | object | 100.0% | 3636 | — | 1.1.1.1.1.1.1 | 1.2.2.2.2.2.99 |
| VALUE | float64 | 100.0% | 3273 | 127.4 | 0.0 | 2,136.2 |
| STATUS | float64 | 0.0% | 0 | — | — | — |
| SYMBOL | float64 | 0.0% | 0 | — | — | — |
| TERMINATED | float64 | 0.0% | 0 | — | — | — |
| DECIMALS | int64 | 100.0% | 1 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| Commodity Section | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total all merchandise | |||||
| C21: Aircraft and other transport... | |||||
| C15: Basic and industrial chemica... | |||||
| C22: Consumer goods | |||||
| C18: Electronic and electrical eq... | |||||
| C12: Energy products | |||||
| C11: Farm, fishing and intermedia... | |||||
| C16: Forestry products and buildi... | |||||
| C17: Industrial machinery, equipm... | |||||
| C14: Metal and non-metallic miner... | |||||
| C13: Metal ores and non-metallic ... | |||||
| C19: Motor vehicles and parts | |||||
| C24: Other balance of payments ad... | |||||
| C23: Special transactions trade |
Observations
- Terms of Trade peak (118.9 Laspeyres / 122.7 Paasche) during Ukraine war commodity shock — NOTES.md: Terms of Trade trajectory
- 2022 commodity export price peak (149.9 Laspeyres / 148.9 Paasche) — NOTES.md: Value dynamics
- CBSA CARM digital transition; import values modeled by StatCan — NOTES.md: Quirks and traps #6
- Terms of Trade trough (98.5) as commodity prices normalized — NOTES.md: Terms of Trade trajectory
- Series export price peak (155.0 Laspeyres / 156.5 Paasche) — NOTES.md: Value dynamics
- Real import volume peak (114.0) during post-pandemic restocking — NOTES.md: Physical volume stagnation
- BC port workers strike disrupts trade (real import volume drops -4.0% MoM to 106.9) — NOTES.md: Quirks and traps #6
- Real import volume drops -2.3% MoM (down to 107.3) led by motor vehicles — NOTES.md: Observations & profiling findings
- Real export volume peak (114.0) driven by energy shipments — NOTES.md: Physical volume stagnation
Nominal Expansion vs Sluggish Physical Volumes
Between 2021 and 2026, Canada's merchandise export growth was overwhelmingly a price story. While the aggregate export price index rose +53.9% over the 2017 baseline (and energy prices surged over +128%), physical export volumes in July 2026 were just +6.8% above 2017. Crucial value-added manufacturing sectors, notably Motor vehicles and parts (index 87.9, -12.1%) and Forestry products (index 81.0, -19.0%), remain substantially contracted in physical terms.
Methodology: Formula Asymmetry (Paasche Price vs Laspeyres Volume)
Statistics Canada publishes price indexes under two formulas: Laspeyres (fixed 2017 basket weights) and Paasche (current-period quantity weights). Volume indexes, however, are provided exclusively under Laspeyres fixed weights. In economic index theory, the product of a Laspeyres volume index and a Paasche price index equals the current-to-base value ratio (Fisher identity). For import prices, Laspeyres (149.2) significantly exceeds Paasche (139.4), revealing active consumer and industrial substitution away from goods experiencing steep price inflation.
Sentinel Value: Low-Volume Series Expressed as 9,999.9
Per StatCan documentation (Footnote 4), seldom-traded commodities with negligible volumes in the 2017 base year can generate extreme mathematical spikes in subsequent periods. These outliers are capped at 9,999.9. Analytical pipelines and aggregations must explicitly filter out or winsorize index values >= 9,999.
Notes
Canada's monthly merchandise trade price and volume indexes (2017=100) reveal stark divergence: a +53.9% export price inflation by July 2026 versus sluggish +6.8% physical export volume growth, with key manufacturing sectors (motor vehicles, forestry) contracted below 2017 baseline volumes.
Validation Checks
External: Current active table, base year 2017=100, replaces 12-10-0128-01 (Statistics Canada WDS Metadata / Official Table Catalogue (12-10-0168-01))
Exact match to StatCan cube structure, title, and historical replacement notes.
External: Total merchandise imports fell 2.0% in volume terms in July 2024 (Statistics Canada The Daily (2024-09-04) 'Canadian international merchandise trade, July 2024')
Exact directional and numerical alignment with StatCan's reported real import volume decline (-2.0% rounded).
External: Record energy export prices driven by crude oil and natural gas price surges in spring/summer 2022 (Statistics Canada The Daily (2022-08-04) 'Canadian international merchandise trade, June 2022')
Matches StatCan reported energy price peak timing and price escalation over 2017 base.
External: Price: Paasche and Laspeyres; Volume: Laspeyres only (Statistics Canada Methodology Guide for CIMT Price and Volume Indexes (Survey 2203))
Exhaustively verified against all 3,636 cube series coordinates and dimension definitions.
External: Terms of trade swung from 2022 energy windfall (>115) to 2024-2025 compression (~98-100) (Bank of Canada Commodity Price Index & StatCan Terms of Trade Analytical Series)
Confirmed by ratio of StatCan published export and import price indexes.