Sign of deindustrialisation, imports are increasing faster than exports and France poster 84.7 billion euros in deficit of its foreign trade.
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For the Minister of the Economy, Bruno the Mayor is “the economic problem we have left to settle in the next ten years”. While France has a growth of 7% for 2021, greater than that of its main neighbors, flourishing job creations and that unemployment declines, foreign trade remains the shadow to the economic table. The trade deficit of France has indeed aggravated over the past year, at 84.7 billion euros, according to the customs data published Tuesday 8 February. He sprays the previous record of 75 billion euros, reached in 2011. A worrying degradation, while the imperative of sovereignty in the face of major producing countries like China has never been so highlighted.
The deficit is hollow, but the exchange of services are recovering
compared to 2020, where he reached 64.2 billion euros, the trade deficit was thus widened by twenty billions largely due to the increase in the energy bill. 25.2 billion euros in 2020 to 43.1 in 2021.
On the other hand, the exchange of services reach a surplus of 36.2 billion euros, a quasi-doubly compared to 2020 (16.4 billion). This allows France to display despite a current balance (which includes revenues from direct investment abroad and services) slightly deficit: it represents – 0.9% of gross domestic product (GDP), against – 1 9% in 2020.
Other “Positive Dynamics”, according to Franck Riester, the delegate minister responsible for foreign trade and attractiveness, the digging of the trade deficit is not due to a fall in exports. These “restarted quickly” after the year 2020, which stopped many sectors, explains Nicolas Carnot, director of syntheses and economic studies at INSEE. Even though “we stay significantly below the precurify level, especially for transport equipment and tourism”. But, at the same time, imports, they increased by 19%, driven by strong domestic demand and investment.
An effect of the strong recovery
Companies have benefited from their excellent financial health associated with the support of the state to invest. They bought raw materials to restore their stocks and construction is in good shape. All this gave a boost to imports of intermediate goods such as plastics, rubber or metals. “In 2015, the trade deficit of industrial goods was 12 billion euros, it should reach about fifty billion euros in 2021,” recalls Stéphane Colliac, economist at BNP Paribas. “Our industry is more and more dependent on the outside, just like consumption.”
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