France’s goods trade deficit widened to 71 billion euros during the first six months of the year, significantly degraded by the energy bill linked to the war in Ukraine, customs said on Friday. In June alone, the trade deficit widened by 13.3 billion euros, which represents a new monthly record.
The “record” energy bill weighed down the six-monthly figures, underlines the Ministry of Foreign Trade in a press release released this Friday. This went from €27 billion in the second half of 2021 to €48 billion in the first six months of the year.
This “explains by itself the deterioration of our trade deficit”, estimated the Delegate Minister of Foreign Trade Olivier Becht during a conference call. Olivier Becht, who replaced Franck Riester in this position last month, acknowledged “a very significant deterioration” in the French trade balance during the first half of the year.
Deficit of more than 120,000 million euros in 12 months
The symbolic bar of 100 billion euros of annual deficit should logically be exceeded by the end of 2022. For twelve consecutive months, France already has a trade deficit of 121.9 billion euros.
The war in Ukraine has caused a rise in hydrocarbon prices, aggravated in the French trade balance by the recent depreciation of the euro against the dollar, which has made oil imports denominated in US currency more expensive.
Excluding energy and military equipment, the trade deficit is 36 billion euros, close to its level last year, the ministry said on Friday. The large merchandise trade deficit is, however, compensated by a very good performance of services, stressed the Ministry of Foreign Trade, highlighting a record surplus of 34,000 million euros in this sector, compared to 23,000 million in the previous semester. This was driven by transportation, travel, and financial services.
Source: BFM TV
