Structurally, the widening of the balance of goods is still the reflection of a deterioration that began two decades ago. sascha burkard/Sascha Burkard – stock.adobe.com
The record trade deficit of 85 billion euros recorded in 2021 almost doubled last year, despite a rebound in exports.
Another sad record. The trade deficit soared to 164 billion euros in 2022 (after 85 billion in 2021), according to figures published this Tuesday morning by Customs. In one year, France has therefore almost doubled an already abysmal deficit. For the record, in the finance law for 2022, the government did not see it falling into the red beyond 100 billion.
The international and geopolitical context obviously weighed. Both on French sales abroad and, above all, on the invoice for imported products. For three years, the underperformance can be explained, it is true, by economic factors which are due, among other things, to the health crisis and, more recently, to the rises in energy prices in connection with the war in Ukraine. Gas, for example, cost 2.4 times more in 2022 than in an ordinary year. The overall energy bill, when the depreciation of the euro against the dollar is taken into account, “represents 80% of the deterioration of the trade balance”,…
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