French account deficit higher in December
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PARIS, Feb 12 AFP
February 12 2013, 9:42PM
The French current-account payments balance showed an increased deficit of 3.6 billion euros ($A4.69 billion) in December from 2.8 billion euros in November, the Bank of France said.
The central bank said that the increase reflected mainly an increased deficit in trade in goods amounting to 6.3 billion euros from a deficit of 4.7 billion euros.
This had been offset only partially by an improvement in a surplus on the trade in services to 3.4 billion euros from 2.8 billion euros.
Tuesday's data was provided on an adjusted basis.
The balance of payments on the current account is a measure of all current payments into and out of a country, including payments for trade in goods and services, and is a closely watched indicator of the medium-term capacity of a country to pay its way in the world.
The central bank is to publish figures in March for the last quarter of the year, and in June for the whole of 2012.
But it said that in the first half of the year, the payments deficit worsened and then improved slightly in the second half.
France is struggling in particular with a huge structural trade deficit and has recently introduced reforms switching part of social charges weighing on businesses to general taxation in an attempt to strengthen the competitive position of French firms.
