French current account deficit grows

France's current account deficit grew in 2011, reaching 38.93 billion euros ($A48.65 billion), up from 30.17 billion euros in 2010, the Bank of France says in its final report for the year.

The current account, which measures all current payments in and out of the country and is a vital statistic on the health of the economy, represented 1.9 per cent of gross domestic product in 2011, up from 1.6 per cent of output a year earlier.

The Bank of France said that the most of the deficit was due to the trade of goods, which reached a deficit of 73.5 billion euros in 2011, up sharply from 52.9 billion euros in 2010.

"At the end of 2011, imports of goods reached levels slightly above those from before the crisis," the bank said in its annual report. But in contrast, exports only narrowly surpassed levels from early 2008.

The Bank of France stressed that the cost of labour in France was less favourable than in Germany, Europe's biggest trading partner, but "that other issues also affected competitiveness in France."

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