Canada concerned about weakness in exports-Flaherty

OTTAWA, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said on Thursday he is concerned by Canada's record trade deficit and he called on the private sector to "step up" investment to become more productive to help support economic growth.

"We are concerned about some weakness in exports," Flaherty told reporters in Kitchener, Ontario. "We need the private sector to continue to step up, start to invest ... to help create more jobs than we've seen in Canada, more investment in machinery and equipment."

Flaherty said that data was starting to show that business investment was coming back, which was encouraging when looking at the longer-term view of the economy. (Reporting by John McCrank; editing by Peter Galloway)