After an improvement at the start of 2024, the French trade deficit is starting to rise again, reaching the sum of 8.1 billion euros in September, according to a press release from French customs on Friday November 8.
This decrease was particularly visible between February and summer 2024, before the deficit began to deteriorate in the third quarter. If the French figures seemed better in February 2024 after two years of trade deficit with catastrophic scores in 2022 and 2023, in September the deficit amounted to 8.1 billion euros, marking a continuous increase since July, when it reached 6 .7 billion euros, and August, when it reached the value of 7.4 billion euros.
This further deterioration of the deficit in September is due to a growing imbalance between imports and exports: imports having increased by 500 million euros, reaching a total of 57 billion euros, while exports fell by 200 million , for a total of 48.9 billion euros.
More precisely, in September, the energy balance deteriorated by 100 million euros, reaching 4.5 billion euros after several months of continuous improvement. A slight increase in energy imports while exports remained stable helps to explain this deterioration. In other sectors, the increase in the deficit continued with a deficit of 5.2 billion euros in September compared to 4.6 billion the previous month. This widening of the non-energy deficit is largely the result of the increase in the gap between imports and exports of manufactured products.
By accumulating the data for the year 2024 until September, France's total deficit stands at 82.4 billion euros. Thus, over a period of 12 months, the figures from French customs however reveal an improvement compared to previous years, despite recent difficulties.
Read also: France singled out by the European Commission for its excessive budget deficit
France
