France Balance Commerciale

France’s trade deficit widened to €7.9 billion in February 2025, up from €6.5 billion in January and above market expectations of €5.4 billion. This marks the largest trade gap since last September, driven by a 2.4% month-on-month increase in imports to €57.5 billion, led by higher purchases of publishing and communication products (+13.8%), transport equipment (+7.2%), and natural hydrocarbons (+5.2%). Import growth was seen across all major regions: the Middle East (+15.7%), the EU (+5.6%), Asia (+1.1%), and America (+0.8%). Meanwhile, exports stalled at €49.7 billion, with gains in agricultural, forestry, and fishing products (+8.7%) and natural hydrocarbons (+3.1%) were offset by declines in transport equipment (-4.9%) and refined petroleum products and coke (-2.2%). Regionally, exports fell to the EU (-1.4%) and the Middle East (-7.3%) but increased to America (+8%), Asia (+4.4%), and Africa (+3.3%).