France trade gap widens in Feb

Wane sales abroad and soaring costs of imported petroleum products drove France's trade deficit to 6.39 billion euros (8.34 billion U.S. dollars) at the end of February, customs figures showed on Friday. "Exchanges have been rising since the beginning of the year, more strongly for imports than for exports, which downgraded the trade deficit," French customs said in a statement. The country's total imports stood at 43.55 billion euros, up from 42.63 billion euros reported in January as purchases of refined products reported more 200 million euros mainly due to the cold wave. At the end of February, France registered a slight rise in its exports to 37.15 billion euros on declining sales of farming products. For the past 12 months, the cumulated trade deficit was slightly down to 70 billion euros in total compared to 70.43 billion euros in 2011.