French Trade Deficit Widens In April

(RTTNews) – France’s foreign trade deficit increased slightly in April, data published by customs office revealed on Tuesday.

The trade deficit widened to EUR 6.24 billion in April from EUR 6.14 billion in March. In the same period last year, the shortfall was EUR 4.54 billion.

Both exports and imports grew 1.6 percent each on a monthly basis in April. Year-on-year, exports advanced 17.4 percent and imports climbed 21 percent.

Elsewhere, data released by Bank of France showed that the current account deficit narrowed notably to EUR 1.4 billion in April from EUR 2.7 billion in March.

The shortfall on goods trade decreased to EUR 4 billion from EUR 4.4 billion and the surplus on services advanced to EUR 2.7 billion from EUR 1.8 billion.

The deficit on primary and secondary income remained unchanged at EUR 0.1 billion.

In the financial account, the direct investment balance was stable, whereas capital inflows for portfolio investment decreased in April.