Soaring natural gas prices helped push Canada’s trade surplus to $5.57 billion in August up from a revised $4.89 billion in July, Statistics Canada reported today.

Pushed higher by the fallout from the hurricanes that hit the U.S. Gulf Coast, Canada’s natural gas exports hit $3.3 billion in August, up from $2.9 billion in July.

In August, the rise in natural gas sales helped lift Canada’s merchandise exports to the world for the sixth time in the last eight months. Overall exports hit $37.98 billion for the month, up from $37.42 billion in July.

Meanwhile, imports slipped 0.4 per cent to just over $32.42 billion as the rise in energy imports, especially gasoline, failed to offset declines in all other sectors.

Energy imports jumped to reach a record high of $3.0 billion as demand for gasoline peaked in August.