The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

French trade deficit fell by 3.9 billion euros in 2019

2020-02-07T07:58:16.548Z


Customs notes in particular the good export performance of pharmaceutical, textile and agricultural products. The French deficit remains significant, however, at 58.9 billion euros.


Foreign trade is one of the French black spots. The question was to know how much the trade war was going to have weighed on the deficit of 2019. And it is clear that the Hexagon showed a certain resilience: at 58.9 billion euros, the trade deficit French remains extremely deep, but less than in 2018 when it reached 62.8 billion, according to data published this Friday morning by INSEE.

Read also: Why Germany's budget surplus annoys its partners so much

" These 2019 figures are very encouraging," welcomes the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in charge of the subject, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne. Despite trade tensions and the rise of protectionism, our trade deficit has fallen by 3.9 billion euros, our exports of goods have increased by 16 billion euros ”.

In fact, the trade balance improved for the first time since 2015 thanks to an increase in exports (+ 3.3% to 508 billion) more marked than that of imports (+ 2.2% to 567). It is recovering from all the major regions of the world, with the exception of Asia.

Customs reports the good performance of exports of pharmaceutical products (+ 10.4% in 2019), textiles and clothing products (+ 8.5%), or agricultural and food products (+ 3.2%) . Exports in aeronautics increased for the second consecutive year (+ 11.9%) thanks to another record year for Airbus (863 deliveries including 358 from France). The luxury goods sectors, a traditional French highlight, also continue to support our foreign trade with export growth of 9%.

" The energy bill is down slightly in 2019 (800 million) but continues to weigh heavily on our trade balance, representing around 60% of the total goods deficit ," said the Quai d'Orsay. Which welcomes the French situation in comparison with other European countries. " According to the trends observed in the first three quarters of 2019, the growth of French exports of goods in 2019 would be higher than that of German, British, Italian, Dutch and Spanish exports. France's market share in world trade has stabilized since 2012, at 3.1% on goods and 3.5% on goods and services, keeping France 5th in the world in exports of goods and services ”.

Read also: Mario Draghi opposes France to Germany over fiscal policy

Finally, the number of exporting companies measured by Customs increased slightly in 2019 to more than 128,000 against 125,000 in 2018, a higher level than that before the crisis (2008). The government hopes to further increase this figure in the coming years - it is well below European standards - with the deployment of the new support system for SMEs and mid-caps for export, Team France Export.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2020-02-07

You may like

News/Politics 2024-03-08T08:38:18.826Z
Business 2024-01-29T05:28:57.214Z

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.