France’s Export and Import Trends in 2019 | Read More

France’s Export and Import Trends in 2019 

In 2018, French exports were driven by the industrial sector with automobiles, mechanical machinery, and air and space navigation. This sector accounted for about 30% of French exports. This trend can be explained by the choice of the leading automobile companies (Renault, Peugeot, and Citroen) to nationalize a more significant part of their production. The assembly lines of the European aircraft manufacturer Airbus are also located in France, in Toulouse.

Then come pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, which represented the second-largest export volume. This can be explained by the fact that major brands of internationally recognized cosmetics such as Hermes, Chanel, Guerlain, Dior, JP Gautier are based in France. Also, large laboratories such as Sanofi Aventis, Servier, and Boiron have their headquarters there. 

These export trends clearly show that the French know-how in these three areas is a reference worldwide. 

In terms of imports, paradoxically, they are also carried out by vehicles, industrial machinery, mechanical machines, and their spare parts. In second place are oil products, whose imports have declined compared to the year 2017. In third place are the plastic works. 

This French foreign trade overview shows a 75 billion dollars deficit of the trade balance, according to the National Statistics Institute (INSEE). 

The measures taken by the government to improve the purchasing power of the French and boost internal consumption should bear fruit. According to forecasts made by the Ministry of the Economy, this should reduce this deficit at the end of 2019.

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