Statistics Canada announced on Thursday that Canada’s merchandise trade deficit stood at CAD1.08 billion in October, narrowing from a revised CAD1.23 billion gap in September (originally a CAD0.98-billion gap).

Economists had expected a deficit of CAD1.37 billion.

According to the report, the country’s exports rose 0.8 percent m-o-m in October, led by gains in exports of consumer goods (+5.5 percent m-o-m), energy products (+3.4 percent m-o-m) and metal and non-metallic mineral products (+5.7 percent m-o-m). Meanwhile, imports increased 0.5 percent m-o-m in October, mostly on higher imports of energy products (+8.9 percent m-o-m).