FRANCE OVERVİEW
GDP (Million $) – 2.778.090
GDP Per Capita ($) – 42,330
Growth Rate (%) – 2,52
Population – 65.629.000
Total Area (km2) – 543.945
Capital – Paris
Monetary Unit – Euro (€)
France is a western European republic extending from the Mediterranean to the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It also borders Italy, Belgium, Spain, Andorra, Switzerland, and Germany.
France is a member of the European Union and the so-called G7, the leading industrialized countries. Economically speaking, France is doing quite well, with a GDP that is expected to rise continuously over the next few years, a steady unemployment rate estimated to decrease, and a subsequently stable employment rate, as well as a recovering inflation rate. Most of France’s workforce is employed in the service sector, which is not surprising, as France is a popular tourist destination and generates most of its GDP in this sector. However, interestingly, less than five percent of the French workforce work in agriculture despite large areas used as agricultural land. It is also one of the biggest exporters of agricultural products worldwide; its wine and meat are among the most popular products exported to countries like Germany, Spain or the United States.
INDUSTRY
The economy of France is a highly developed social market economy with notable state participation in strategic sectors. It is the world's seventh largest economy by 2022 nominal figures and the tenth-largest economy by PPP, constituting 3.3% of world GDP.
The French economy is a highly developed and free-market-orientated business model. The government has partially or fully privatized many large companies, including Air France, France Telecom (now Orange S.A.), Renault, and Thales (now Thales Group).
Key sectors are the chemical industry (Air Liquide, Groupe Roullier), energy (France runs 58 nuclear plants operated by Électricité de France (EDF), with a total capacity of 63.1 GWe.). Other chief branches are automotive (Peugeot, Renault), banking (BNP PARIBAS, Société Générale, Crédit Agricole), insurance (AXA), retail (Carrefour, Auchan), and the petroleum industry (Total S.A.).
The manufacture of transport vehicles is among France's largest industries, and billions of dollars in the country's GDP come from this area. The country is recognized as the world's fourth largest automaker and is hosts the world's two largest automakers, Peugeot and Renault. France also has an aviation industry dominated by the world's leading aircraft manufacturer, Airbus.
France is the leader in the luxury industry, with a worldwide turnover of over 200 billion euros every year. As a matter of fact, 28.1% of the world turnover, which reached the level of 283 billion in 2021, belongs to French companies.
Prime Minister Jean Castex announced the “France Relance” Plan on 3 September 2020 with the Minister of Economy, Finance and Development Bruno Le Maire at the Prime Minister's Building Hotel de Matignon. The aim of the Environment Project, for which a budget of 30 billion Euros is foreseen within the framework of the Relance Plan, which is aimed to achieve results by 2022 by the French Government, is to reach the "Zero Carbon" level in 2050 by becoming the largest Carbon-Free Economy in Europe. In this framework, the investments to be made in some major programs are listed below:
• Renewal of the energy performance of buildings: 6.7 billion euros
• Decarbonisation of industry: 1.2 billion euros
• Public transport development: 1.2 billion euros
• Railways development: 4.7 billion euros
• Developing green hydrogen: 7 billion euros
Thanks to the taxation system, it aims at long-term prosperity as well as increasing the attractiveness of France.
Faced with regulatory restrictions and social pressures, the producers with the largest carbon footprint in France have prepared roadmaps to reduce their emissions.
For example, Arcelor Mittal from the iron and steel industry has aimed to reduce carbon emissions by up to 30% by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. In November 2018, Air Liquide announced its decision to reduce its carbon footprint by 30% by 2025. Solvay, on the other hand, aims to reduce its carbon emissions to 40% by 2025.
TRANSPORTATION
Transport in France is a huge sector and some of its key players are globally important companies. France is one of the countries with the densest road and railway networks connecting the cities of the world. The rail network in France is 18,580 miles long, most of which are operated by the SNCF (French National Railway Company). However, France's largest company in rail transport is Alstom, based in Saint-Ouen. The company, which has over $37 billion in assets, operates all over the world.
In France, the cities of Paris, Marseille and Lyon have extensive metro systems, while cities such as Rennes, Lille and Toulouse have light metro systems.
France has one of the highest airport density in Europe, with a total of 478 airports across the country. The busiest airport in the country is Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, used by approximately 60 million passengers each year, making it the fifth busiest airport in the world. Air France is the national airline of France and flies to 150 destinations on six continents of the world.
AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY
The automotive industry has a significant place within the French economy. For several years, the annual production of motor vehicles has been around 2.2 million. However, figures dropped sharply in 2020 due to the economic downturn following the impacts of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Despite this outstanding year, France remains one of the leading European countries producing motor vehicles. When it comes to employment in the automotive industry in France, figures have experienced a downward trend since 2008. Yet the number of jobs in this sector has remained above 100,000 over the past decade.
The total number of passenger cars registered in France had been growing steadily until 2013 when figures reached 32.86 million registrations. Since then, numbers dropped. Paradoxically, the number of passenger cars sold in France is increasing since 2014. Despite the troubles experienced by the French automotive sector due to the COVID-19 crisis, new car registrations started to grow again in the second half of 2020. Furthermore, if new registrations of diesel and gasoline cars were still in the majority in France in 2020, sales of cars equipped with alternative motorizations took off. In fact, this represented a further step towards more environmentally friendly mobility in France.
The production of passenger cars by French manufacturers has remained around 1.4 million units in recent years. In addition, French car brands remain particularly popular with the French, as they still account for the largest share of vehicle registrations in the French domestic market: even in 2019, the bulk of new car registrations in France were vehicles produced by PSA or Renault. On a global scale, French brands are also among the world's largest car manufacturers.
AVIATION INDUSTRY
The aviation industry, one of France’s economic driving forces
France is one of the few states in the world to cover the whole field of aviation : aircraft construction, airports, airlines, air navigation systems and aeronautical experts training (Ecole Nationale de l’Aviation Civile, National School of Civil Aviation). The aviation industry in France covers all segments of the market (transport aircraft, business aircraft, helicopters, engines) with major world-leading groups such as Airbus, ATR, Dassault, Thales or SAFRAN. Beyond these world leaders in their respective fields, thousands of French equipment manufacturers and subcontractors specialized in aviation also invest and recruit throughout the country.
