PARIS: France's trade deficit fell last year to the lowest since 2009 mainly because of cheaper oil imports, data from the customs office showed on Friday. With oil and other natural resource imports making up about 75 percent of France's deficit, the shortfall fell to 45.67 billion euros ($51.13 billion), down from 58.3 billion in 2014.
Boosted by a weaker euro, exports grew by 4.3 percent with aircraft and car sales particularly strong, while imports grew only 1.2 percent amid low energy prices.
The customs office said France saw its energy import bill cut 14.6 billion euros while its deficit for manufactured goods widened 2.6 billion euros on higher imports of computers, electronics and optical equipment.
In December, the monthly trade deficit was trimmed back to 3.9 billion euros on lower imports of aeronautics equipment and chemicals, while aircraft exports held up.
The Socialist government has pinned its hopes of restoring French firms' international competitiveness on a 40 billion euro payroll tax credit scheme. The Coe-Rexecode economics think-tank said that such measures were helping halt the decline, France was not yet clawing back lost ground.
France's share of euro zone exports to the rest of the world was stable last year at 12.2 percent, down from about 17 percent at the turn of the century, the Coe-Rexecode said in a study on French competitiveness.
It found however that the tax credit scheme was helping to reduce labour costs in the industrial sector to less than those in Germany, whose industrial sector is often admired in France.
The average hourly wage now stands at 37.1 euros in France compared to 39.1 euros in Germany, the think tank found.
French credit insurer Euler Hermes said a weak euro could help French exporters potentially increase their market share by as much as 21 billion euros.
"The euro's depreciation to around 1.05-1.11 dollars since last March creates an important competitive advantage, boosted by recovery in France's main euro zone trade partners," Euler Hermes chief economist Ludovic Subran said.
"But the road to exports will be more complex in 2016 with some countries extremely vulnerable to economic shocks, market volatility and international pressures," he said.
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