PARIS: France’s trade deficit widened unexpectedly in November as exports fell more quickly than imports, showed seasonally adjusted data published on Tuesday by the customs office.
The shortfall in French trade with the rest of the world came to 5.7 billion euros ($6.82 billion) after 5.3 billion euros in October, the customs office said, revising the October number from -5.0 billion euros previously.
A Reuters poll of five economists had forecast on average for the deficit to have narrowed to 4.7 billion euros for November. The customs office said that exports fell 1.6 percent in November from October with deliveries of aircraft, one of France’s biggest export products thanks to Airbus , and automobiles both down. Separately, the central bank said that the current account deficit widened in November to 3.3 billion euros from 2.6 billion in October due to the higher energy bill and the services surplus slipping into a deficit.
