New data on Canadian debt securities released by StatsCan

As part of an ongoing global effort to improve market data in the wake of the financial crisis, Statistics Canada is providing new, more detailed data on Canadian debt securities.

StatsCan began reporting enhanced statistics for Canadian debt securities on Tuesday and introduced a new visualization tool that aims to “allow users to better understand and address issues related to global financial risks.”

The initiative comes in response to a G20 effort to improve data on financial markets to better arm the financial sector, governments and investors, to monitor accumulations of financial risk.

The G20 initiative aims to have enhanced data reported regularly by 2021. StatsCan says its reporting will continue to expand in the years ahead, with enhanced data on equity securities and securities owners in the works.

The new data reported Tuesday shows that the value of outstanding Canadian debt securities was $4.3 trillion at the end of 2018, led by the financial sector, which accounted for $1.13 trillion of the total. About three-quarters of that total is denominated in Canadian dollars.

The mining and energy sectors are most exposed to foreign currencies, StatsCan said, with more than 80% of their debt denominated in U.S. dollars at the end of 2018.

It also reported that foreign investors held 35% of Canadian debt securities at the end of 2018, including 43% of debt issued by Canadian non-financial corporations, 39% of financial sector debt and 27% of government debt.

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.