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French foreign trade results

All the counters are on green. During the first half of 2004, French foreign trade posted gains, thereby confirming the resumption of French economic growth. As seen earlier with consumption and investment, exports also showed an increase of 3.1%.

“These results reveal the sound performance of French businesses exporting in such diverse sectors as the auto industry, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, aviation and intermediate goods. French companies saw strong growth in the first half of 2004, particularly in strategic geographic areas like Asia, China, the Eurozone and the countries of the enlarged European Union where their exports increased respectively 7.2%, 4.4%, 3.4% and 5.4%,” commented the Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade, François Loos.

He added: “With world trade forecast to grow 8.3% in 2004 and 7.5% in 2005, we have every reason to believe the recovery will have a sustained effect on activity in France. Our businesses benefited in the first half from the surge in activity in our principal partners, Germany especially, but also Japan, which is our fourth leading client outside of the European Union. Their strong competitiveness enabled them to cope with the drop in the dollar. The 3.8% rise in imports reflects the health of the French economy compared with its neighbors and the rise in our energy bill. High oil prices, if sustained, could however impact on the growth of world trade.

“The growth in economic activity has spurred the purchase abroad of intermediate goods (+5.5%). The increase in productive investment has stimulated imports of capital goods (+4.6%) while buoyant household spending has fueled the rise in imports of consumer goods (+4.3%).

“These results, which enable France to retain its market share of 5.1% in world trade, are in line with the export-support policy that has been followed over the past two years through geographic action plans (25 countries targeted). These will be stepped up with a series of measures to help small- and medium-size business (tax credits, export contracts, etc.) and the implementation of sectoral strategies. The results will encourage French businesses to continue their efforts to develop internationally,” concluded François Loos.