--French Dec adj current acct surplus to narrows to 78 mln euros
--French Dec unadj current acct surplus 671 million euros
--French Dec current acct surplus much smaller than forecasts
--French prelim Jan unadj current acct surplus 4.5 bln euros
--French 2000 current acct surplus 25.7 bln euros vs 34.8 bln '99

Paris, March 16 (BridgeNews) - France's January current account surplus widened to an unadjusted 4.5 billion euros after narrowing to 671 million euros in December from 1.413 billion in November, according the Finance Ministry's newly-introduced preliminary balance of payments indicator. As is normal at the beginning of the year the January accounts were boosted by a rise in payment transfers from European Union institutions (see table .6666).
* * * In adjusted terms December's surplus narrowed to 78 million euros from 2.123 billion in November. Adjusted figures for January will be available when more detailed data for that month is released in April.
The December adjusted surplus was well below the consensus market forecast of around 2.2 billion euros.
For 2000 as a whole, France's current account surplus was 25.7 billion euros, or 1.8% of gross domestic product, compared with 34.8 billion euros, 2.6% of GDP, in 1999. Despite this decline France is still second only to Japan in the size of its current account surplus, the ministry stressed.