French budget deficit widens in year to July while trade deficit remains stable

France's budget deficit widened to 84.1 billion euros at the end of July from 80.8 billion a year earlier, the Finance ministry said on Tuesday, while its trade deficit remained stable.

The Ministry of Finances in Bercy, Paris. Wikimedia commons

The Finance ministry said the latest budget deficit figures occured because France incurred extra expenditure related to new investment programmes, while on the revenue side the corporate tax take had fallen as a result of the new scheme of tax breaks intended to boost hiring and competitivity.

But without these exceptional expenses - investment programmes and losses on the tax side - public spendings are in fact 5.1 billion euros lower than last year.

Regarding France's trade deficit, it remained stable in July at 5.54 billion euros from a revised 5.57 billion euros the month before as imports declined.

While exports fell to 36.15 billion euros from 36.7 billion, imports over the same period eased to 41.7 billion from 42.2 billion, the customs service said in a statement.