PARIS (dpa-AFX) - The French trade deficit widened to a three-month high in April due to a sharp decline in exports, the French customs office said on Tuesday.
The trade deficit increased to EUR 5.02 billion from EUR 3.22 billion in March. This was the biggest shortfall since January. In the same period last year, the deficit totaled EUR 5.3 billion.
Data showed that exports plunged 32.4 percent on a monthly basis, and imports declined 25 percent.
Year-on-year, exports and imports were down 21.2 percent and 20.5 percent, respectively.
Another report from the Bank of France showed that the current account deficit increased notably in April driven by the deficit on visible trade.
The current account deficit came in at EUR 5.4 billion in April versus a shortfall of EUR 2.8 billion in the previous month.
This deterioration was the result of a very sharp contraction in trade in goods and services, affecting exports more strongly than imports, the central bank said.
The energy deficit narrowed by EUR 1.2 billion, but the deficit in non-energy goods widened by EUR 2.1 billion, resulting in a deficit for goods of EUR 4.0 billion.
While usually in surplus, services logged a deficit of EUR 0.5 billion. This deficit was mainly due to a zero balance in travel and a poor performance in consulting and R&D services, which recorded a deficit of EUR 1 billion, data showed.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX