French April trade gap widens by 21% on soaring energy bills

French trade deficit widened by 21 percent to 7.14 billion euros (10.44 billion U.S. dollars) in April this year from 5.9 billion euros (8.63 billion dollars) a month earlier due to increasing bills of imported petroleum products, official figures showed Wednesday.


For the past 12 months, the cumulate trade deficit already climbed to 61.27 billion euros (89.63 billion dollars) in total, according to data issued by customs services.


"The trade deficit exceeded ... 7 billion euros in April. The acquisition of two jumbo jets and a surge in purchases of refined petroleum products inflate imports. In addition, exports fell ...," French customs said in a statement.


The country's total imports grew by 1.4 percent to 41.54 billion euros (60.77 billion dollars) while a 1.5-percent drop in manufacturing sales abroad pulled down the total exports to 34.4 billion euros (50.32 billion dollars).


Orders of Airbus, the country's key aeronautic group, were worth 1.7 billion euros (2.48 billion dollars), down from 1.89 billion euros (2.76 billion dollars) last month.
(Source:http://news.xinhuanet.com)