FRENCH 1986 CURRENT ACCOUNT SURPLUS REVISED

  The French 1986 current account balance
  of payments surplus has been revised slightly upwards to 25.8
  billion francs from the 25.4 billion franc figure announced
  last month, the Finance Ministry said.
      This compares with a 1.5 billion deficit in 1985, and while
  it is the first surplus since 1979, is substantially lower than
  the 50 billion surplus forecast by the previous socialist
  government before they lost office in March last year.
      Net long-term capital outflows rose sharply to 70.5 billion
  francs last year from 8.8 billion in 1985, largely due to a
  major program of foreign debt repayment, the ministry said.
      In the fourth quarter alone the unadjusted surplus rose to
  14.1 billion francs from 6.6 billion the previous quarter, but
  the adjusted surplus fell to 7.4 billion from 9.1 billion.
      Fourth quarter medium and long-term foreign debt repayments
  exceeded new credits by 11 billion francs.
  

