France suffered a record 69.6 billion euro ($91.3 billion) trade deficit last year, junior minister for trade Pierre Lellouche said in a newspaper interview, published on Tuesday.

However, Lellouche told the Figaro daily, while the figure is higher than the previous record deficit of 56.2 billion euro recorded in 2008 it was nonetheless "lower than had been anticipated."

Last month Lellouche revised down an original estimate of a 75 billion euro trade deficit.

In 2011 France's imports rose by 11 percent to 498 billion euros while exports rose by 8.6 percent to 429 billion euros, allowing for the creation of 90,000 new jobs, he told the Figaro.

"We can be satisfied at the good results in certain sectors, the agro-food sector saw a historic surplus of 11.4 billion (euros). Aeronautics also saw a surplus, of 17.7 billion, thanks to the sale of 534 Airbus planes," Lellouche said.

However French exports rose less last year than in Germany, Britain, Spain, Italy or the United States.

France's global trade share has fallen sharply since 1990 from 6.2 percent to 3.6 percent.