French current account deficit stable

France's current account deficit remained unchanged in November from the previous month, as the goods deficit and services surplus both fell slightly, the Bank of France reported on Friday. The current account in the Europe's second largest economy, stood at 2.9 billion euro deficit, the same level as October. Last month, a report showed that nation's gross domestic product rose 0.1% in the third quarter, compared to a 0.2% growth estimated on Nov 15. The moderate growth and a return to positive territory provided some comfort and confounded initial expectations that Europe's second largest economy may slip into recession in the last quarter of 2012.

"France has become a less open economy than its European peers over the last decade, which limits the economy's ability to rebound in the short term, and will constrain growth over the next few years," said Edward Gardner, an assistant director in the IMF's European Department.