Trade Minister Francois Loos said France's trade surplus in 2003 would be roughly half that in the previous year and warned that the country's businesses could not for ever reduce margins because of the strong euro.
Loos told the financial daily Les Echos in an interview published on Wednesday France should post a trade surplus of around three billion euros for 2003.
"After an atypical first six months, French exports rose 6.3 percent in the second half, despite a drop in November," Loos said.
"The trade surplus for the year will be roughly three billion euros. We were penalised in 2003 by our geographical position. We were less present than our European partners in zones of strong growth," he said, without elaborating.
Loos said French firms were also hampered by the strength of the euro, which forced them to slash their margins in order to remain competitive in dollar terms.
"It is obvious that this situation (the slashing of margins) cannot last forever. The prime minister is starting to worry, as have already finance ministers of the euro zone and analysts of the European Central Bank," he said.
The euro paused against the dollar on Wednesday after a chorus of top European officials spoke out against the rapid rise in the single currency. It stood at around $1.2770 at 0830 GMT, up slightly from its early morning levels.
France on Tuesday posted a seasonally adjusted trade surplus for November of 411 million euros after a surplus of 270 million euros in October, according to customs office data.
The cumulated surplus for the first 11 months of the year was 2.957 billion euros, down from 6.912 billion a year earlier.
Comments
Comments are closed.