PARIS, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- French trade deficit stood at 16 billion euros (17.65 billion U.S. dollars) for the July-September period this year, up by 1.5 billion euros compared to the previous quarter due to falling sales abroad, official figures showed on Friday.
In its report, French customs attributed the negative trend to "drop in aeronautical exports, particularly to Asia, combined with the rise in car imports."
"Furthermore, French foreign trade suffers aftereffects of exceptional shipments of military equipment in the previous quarter." they said.
In the third quarter, imports reported a tepid growth of 0.2 percent to 142.7 billion euros, while exports went down by 0.9 percent to 126.7 billion euros.
France recorded a trade gap of 10.4 billion euros in Asian markets, up by 28.4 percent from the second quarter of the year because of a slump in aircraft deliveries to all countries in the region, customs said. (1 euro = 1.103 U.S. dollar)
