Statistics Canada announced on Thursday that Canada’s merchandise trade deficit stood at CAD3.21 billion in March, narrowing from a revised CAD3.42 billion gap in February (originally a CAD2.90-billion deficit).

Economists had expected a deficit of CAD2.45 billion.

According to the report, the country’s exports increased 3.2 percent m-o-m in March, led in part by higher exports of energy products (+7.7 percent m-o-m).

Meanwhile, imports rose 2.5 percent m-o-m in March, in part due to higher imports of consumer goods (+6.7 percent m-o-m) and motor vehicles and parts (+4.9 percent m-o-m).

For the first quarter of 2019, Canada’s trade gap widened to CAD10.4 billion from CAD7.8 billion in the same period of 2018. That was the largest deficit since the second quarter of 2016.