PARIS, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- High imports bill and a decline in aeronautic business drove French trade gap to widen to 5.6 billion euros (6.44 billion U.S. dollars) in August compared to 3.4 billion euros a month earlier, customs figures showed on Friday.
The country's total exports inched down by 0.1 percent to 41.3 billion euros compared to 1.2-percent growth in July due to "lower performance of aerospace products," the customs services said.
After an "exceptional" result in July, deliveries of Airbus were worth 1.5 billion euros in August compared to 2.84 billion euros a month earlier.
As to imports, the country increased its purchases by 4.9 percent to some 47 billion euros mainly due to high energy bill, according to the customs' monthly report.
France saw its trade exchange with neighboring European countries suffering a wider deficit at 3.17 billion euros over the period while it recorded positive trend with African countries.
In order to overturn negative trade performance, French government pledged to improve mechanisms to support exports and diversify partnership deals to offer wider opportunities for domestic products. (1 euro = 1.15 U.S. dollar)
