France's trade deficit dropped by 8 percent to 5.7 billion euros (7.4 billion U.S. dollars) in March compared to a month earlier, official figures showed on Wednesday.

The country's total imports fell by 2.6 percent month on month to 42.2 billion euros, while exports dipped 1.5 percent to 36.5 billion euros, according to data issued by the customs service.

After a good performance over the previous months, the country's manufacturing exports slowed, the customs said.

"Exchanges interrupted their progress in March. The decline is more marks for imports after the substantial energy purchases of February (due to) cold snap, so that the deficit business is reduced by more than 500 million euros," French customs said in a statement.

In March, France sold 27 Airbus aircraft worth 1.85 billion euros compared to 1.97 billion euros collected after selling 25 aircrafts in February.

For the past 12 months, the cumulated trade deficit already climbed to 68.59 billion euros in total. (1 euro = 1.30 U.S. dollars)