PARIS: French trade deficit in September widened to 4.7 billion euros (5.44 billion U.S. dollars), from the 4.2 billion euros reported in August due to slowing sales abroad, official figures showed on Wednesday.
“Exports are still growing slightly…, on the other hand, imports recover sharply so that the deficit… widens again in September,” the customs said in a .
Over the period, exports inched up by 0.3 percent to generate 40.3 billion euros, while imports grew by 1.3 percent to 45 billion euros from August data.
The gap of manufactured products widened by 2.2 percent to 4.22 billion euros, according to the report.
France gained 2.57 billion euros in sales of 30 Airbus, compared to 23 aircrafts sold in August whose value was at 1.86 billion euros.
In its last economic report, the national statistics institute, Insee predicted exports to grow by 3.3 percent for the whole year of 2017 thanks to an expected recovery of world trade. (1 euro=1.159 U.S. dollar)
