After three straight months of a sharply rising trade surplus, it was probably time for a breather. Statistics Canada (StatCan) reports that the country’s trade balance swung back into deficit in August.

The CAD610 million deficit was a far cry from the CAD1.6 billion surplus predicted by economists. Even worse, it was a huge CAD2.81 billion drop from July’s revised trade surplus.

Unfortunately, the step back toward deficit was the result of both a jump in imports and a decrease in exports.

Previously, Canada’s total exports had hit a record high of CAD45.3 billion in July, largely thanks to sales of motor vehicles and parts. This time around, that same category, along with energy products, helped drive a 2.5 percent decline in exports.

Exports of motor vehicles and parts decreased 11.2 percent, to CAD6.1 billion. At the sub-category level, exports of passenger cars and light trucks fell 13.1 percent, to CAD4.0 billion.

Partially mitigating this gloomy result is StatCan’s observation that at least some of the normal seasonal shutdowns at plants in the automotive sector did not occur this year.

Instead, several plants only shut down briefly or remained open the entire time, which brought production and exports that normally would have waited until August forward by a month. That also partly explains why July’s export number was such a blockbuster.

In the energy sector, the decline in prices was the main culprit, as crude oil and crude bitumen exports fell 7.1 percent, to CAD7.7 billion.

Interestingly, exports from the aerospace sector offered the one bright spot for August. Exports of aircraft and other transportation equipment are notoriously lumpy, but the periodic surge in sales in this area can be dramatic. Indeed, exports in this category were up 26.8 percent month over month, to CAD2.1 billion, and 57.2 percent year over year.

Meanwhile, Canada’s total imports climbed 3.9 percent, to a record high of CAD44.8 billion. Despite the country’s resource riches, imports of mineral and energy products led the gain.

In the latter category, crude oil and crude bitumen were the primary factor, with imports up 36.6 percent to CAD2.6 billion. Presumably most of those imports were headed toward refineries on Canada’s Atlantic coast, thus underscoring the importance of extending the country’s energy infrastructure to link production from Alberta with processing in the east.

While most of our emphasis is on exports, there is one import category we monitor closely: industrial machinery and equipment. This is one of our gauges of whether Canadian companies are investing for future growth. Although imports in this area fell 2.4 percent month over month, to CAD4.1 billion, they’re still up 6.2 percent year over year.

But a ramp-up in export activity will likely have to precede any meaningful growth in business investment. Exports account for about one-third of Canada’s economy, with the US absorbing roughly three-quarters of the country’s shipments.

In August, exports to the US declined by 2.5 percent month over month, to CAD33.3 billion, but they’re still up 8.4 percent year over year.

The Bank of Canada is keenly interested in the country’s progress on this front, with the expectation that a rise in exports will spur business investment, as well as hiring.

The hope is that these factors will relieve Canada’s debt-burdened consumers from driving the country’s economy, while begetting a virtuous economic cycle of higher production, higher employment and higher spending.

But we’re not quite there yet.