French September Trade Gap Expands to a Record as Exports Fall

By Helene Fouquet

Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) -- The French tradedeficit widened to a record in September as a global economic slowdown curbed exports.

The trade gap expanded to 6.25 billion euros ($8 billion) from a revised 5.37 billion euros in August, the Trade Ministry said in Paris today. Economists forecast a trade deficit of 5 billion euros in September, according to the median of nine forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey.

``Demand -- foreign and domestic -- is out of steam,'' said David Naude, an economist at Deutsche Bank AG in Paris. ``Trade figures are a translation in the real economy of the crisis.''

The euro-region's second-largest economy slipped into its first recession since 1993 with a contraction in the three months through September, the national statistics office estimates. A decline in the price of crude oil and the euro may not compensate for the global economic slump to bring French trade back to balance.

Finance Minister Christine Lagarde yesterday lowered the 2009 growth forecasts to between 0.2 percent and 0.5 percent, saying France will feel the pinch from the slowdown in its biggest trading partners. Germany revised its 2009 growth forecast last month, saying expansion would not exceed 0.2 percent. On Nov. 5, it rolled out a 50 billion-euro package to help rekindle growth.

Exports fell to 34.3 billion euros from a revised 35.1 billion euros in August, while imports barely rose to 40.5 billion euros from a revised 40.4 billion euros.

Airbus SAS said it sold 20 airplanes in September for 1.2 billion euros.

Oil prices halved in the past 5 months, falling from their July peak to $61.35 a barrel at 9:10 a.m. today in Paris. The euro traded at $1.2801 against the dollar.

To contact the reporters on this story: Helene Fouquet in Paris hfouquet1@bloomberg.net