OTTAWA (Reuters) - Lower prices for crude oil helped to widen Canada's current account deficit to its fourth-largest level ever in the fourth quarter of 2013, but the gap was still smaller than expected and previous deficits were revised lower than originally reported.
Statistics Canada reported a fourth-quarter gap of C$16.01 billion ($14.42 billion) on Thursday. It revised the third-quarter deficit to C$14.80 billion from C$15.47 billion, and the second-quarter gap to C$15.21 billion from C$15.92 billion.
The median forecast in a Reuters survey of analysts was for a C$17.00 billion deficit.
The fourth-quarter deficit was the largest since the third quarter of 2012 and the fourth biggest on record. The figures are seasonally adjusted.
The year 2013 saw the second-biggest deficit ever, of C$60.70 billion, down a touch from C$62.22 billion in 2012.
Statscan said the increase in the fourth-quarter deficit was mostly because of the trade in goods, with exports down C$876 million and imports up C$509 billion. The biggest factor was a C$2.20 billion decline in crude oil exports, mainly because of lower prices.
(Reporting by Randall Palmer; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
