Improvement in export growth to be modest

The breakdown of Canada's sluggish export performance reveals that some of the weakness in the second half of last year should prove temporary. The persistent weakness in some industries such as autos and electronics, however, is more troubling. Although the lower Canadian dollar will help to support exports overall, it still remains far too high to offset Canada's competitiveness problems. With the exception of energy exports, the outlook for other merchandise exports looks only modestly better than it did at the start of last year.