Released: 2026-09-17
Canadian investors reduced their exposure to foreign securities by $30.6 billion in July, led by sales of US shares. Meanwhile, foreign investors added $20.7 billion of Canadian securities to their holdings, led by a significant investment in federal government bonds.
As a result, international transactions in securities generated a net inflow of funds of $51.3 billion into the Canadian economy in July.
Chart 1 
Canada’s international transactions in securities
Record Canadian divestment in United States shares
Canadian investors reduced their exposure to foreign securities by $30.6 billion in July, led by a divestment in US shares and, to a lesser extent, in US government bonds.
In July, Canadian investors sold an unprecedented $31.0 billion of US shares, after investing $78.1 billion in the first half of 2026. The divestment in July was mainly in shares of large US capitalization technology firms. US share prices, as measured by the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 composite index, edged down in July, after recording strong gains earlier in the year.
Chart 2
Canadian investment in foreign equity and investment fund shares
Meanwhile, resident investors reduced their holdings of US government bonds by $5.1 billion in July, a sixth consecutive monthly divestment bringing the total since January to $37.3 billion. The activity in July was partially offset by acquisitions of US corporate bonds (+$1.8 billion) and non-US foreign bonds (+$3.3 billion). In July, US long-term interest rates rose, and the US dollar depreciated against the Canadian dollar.
Chart 3
Canadian investment in foreign bonds
Strong foreign investment in federal government bonds
Foreign investors acquired $20.7 billion of Canadian securities in July, bringing the total investment since January to $178.9 billion. The activity in July was led by strong foreign purchases of federal government bonds and, to a lesser extent, of Canadian shares. Meanwhile, a foreign divestment in money market instruments moderated the overall investment.
In July, foreign purchases of federal government bonds remained strong, at $22.7 billion. Since the beginning of the year, foreign investment in federal government bonds totalled an unprecedented $104.0 billion, compared with $13.8 billion for the same period in 2025. Consequently, the share of total outstanding federal government bonds held by foreign investors increased from 40.2% to 46.5% during the first seven months of 2026.
Chart 4
Foreign investment in Canadian bonds, by sector of issuer
In contrast, non-resident investors reduced their exposure to Canadian money market instruments by $11.9 billion in July. The divestment was primarily in private corporate paper (-$7.6 billion) and federal government paper (-$3.2 billion).
Meanwhile, foreign investors acquired $7.2 billion of Canadian shares, the largest monthly investment of 2026. On an industry basis, foreign investors mainly targeted shares of the energy and mining sector (+$7.8 billion). Canadian share prices, as measured by the S&P/Toronto Stock Exchange composite index, were up 1.1% in July.
Chart 5
Foreign investment in Canadian equity and investment fund shares
Note to readers
The data series on international transactions in securities covers portfolio transactions in equity and investment fund shares, bonds and money market instruments for both Canadian and foreign issues. This activity excludes transactions in equity and debt instruments between affiliated enterprises. These are classified as foreign direct investment in international accounts.
Equity and investment fund shares include common and preferred equities, as well as units or shares of investment funds. For the sake of brevity, the terms “shares” and “equity and investment fund shares” have the same meaning.
Debt securities include bonds and money market instruments.
Bonds have an original term to maturity of more than one year.
Money market instruments have an original term to maturity of one year or less.
Government of Canada paper includes Treasury bills and US-dollar Canada bills.
All values in this release are net transactions unless otherwise stated.
Next release
Data on Canada’s international transactions in securities for August 2026 will be released on October 16.
Products
The International trade statistics portal is available on Statistics Canada website.
The User Guide: Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts (Catalogue number13-606-G) is also available.
The Methodological Guide: Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts (Catalogue number13-607-X) is available.
Contact information
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