The French trade deficit has decreased by almost €30 billion in the space of four years, falling from a record high of €74.5 billion in 2011 to €45.7 billion in 2015.
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More generally, France's deficit in the trade of goods and services decreased in 2015 to €-9.4 billion, its lowest level for the last 10 years, and a quarter of what it was in 2011.
The combination of the context of the global downturn, mainly with regard to emerging countries – with a rise in global trade which remains low (at 2.7% in 2016 according to the IMF).
The fact that France is not benefiting as much as last year from the "weak Euro-cheap oil" scenario, will, however, have an impact on this trend during 2016: during the first half of the year this deficit amounted to €24 billion, one billion more than in the second half of last year.
However, the strengthening of businesses' cost competitiveness is bolstering French resilience as France is no longer losing international market shares: it has been stable for the past four years at 3.1% for goods and at 3.5% for goods and services.
The CICE (Tax Credit for encouraging competitiveness and jobs) and the Responsibility Pact have made a significant contribution towards improving the cost situation in France. The cost competitiveness of French businesses has increased by seven points since 2014 compared to other OECD countries.
This has prevented our position on the foreign markets from continuing to deteriorate. The significant work on the organisation of different sectors is also proving to be effective.
French exports to Germany are therefore getting back on the right track in terms of growth, with our bilateral deficit reducing by €1 billion, to €6.2 billion, during the first half of the year.
In the automotive industry, the recovery of exports, which started in 2013, was strengthened further during the first six months of the year (+1.6%), in connection with the turnaround in the automotive industry in France, linked to the competitiveness agreements signed by French manufacturers.
Moreover, despite the difficulties encountered by the tourism industry, the surplus in the trade of services is increasing slightly to €900 million. This long-term effort must be continued, particularly to expand the network of exporting companies.
They numbered 117,000 in 2011, 121,000 in 2014 and 125,000 in 2015. This is still half the number found in Italy and a third of the number found in Germany, but shows a positive trend reversal, made possible by concrete actions and an ambitious simplification of the export environment. ■