French Trade Gap Widens In May

(RTTNews) - France's foreign trade deficit increased in May as exports fell faster than imports, data released by the customs office showed on Friday.

The trade deficit rose to EUR 7.98 billion in May from EUR 7.56 billion in April. The expected shortfall was EUR 7.20 billion.

In the same period last year, the deficit totaled EUR 7.87 billion.

During May, the energy balance deteriorated by EUR 0.3 billion, driven largely by the increase in volumes of imported energy products.

Exports posted a monthly decline of 1.7 percent, and imports were 0.7 percent lower.

On a yearly basis, both exports and imports slid by 0.6 percent and 3.3 percent, respectively.