Modern France is one of the mosthighly developed countries of Europe and the world. It plays an important role in world politics, being a permanent member of the UN Security Council, the G-7 and many international organizations, and since 2009, again, NATO. Close cooperation and cooperation with the EU and Germany in particular has ensured a high rate of growth in French GDP in recent decades.
French economy is gooddiversified across all sectors. The government has partially or fully privatized most of the major companies, including Air France, France Telecom, Renault, and Thales. However, the role of the state remains significant in the energy sector, public transport and the military-industrial complex. Despite the terrorist attacks, workers' strikes and bad weather, France remains the most attractive tourist destination in the world. In 2016, she was visited by 83 million foreigners, and 530 thousand of them came to Euro 2016.
The political course of French President FrancoisHollande aims to increase the competitiveness of the national industry and reduce unemployment. It is expected that about 50 billion US dollars will be additionally allocated for these tasks. While the results of the program are not yet visible. France’s 2017 budget also provides for a reduction in income taxes for households, small and medium businesses. Francois Hollande has already managed to carry out two extremely unpopular economic reforms, which led to large-scale protests.
“Macron Law” allowed enterprises to operate insome sundays of the month and much freer to set the payment for labor. The “El Homri Law” was also aimed at this area, which caused a strong protest from the trade unions.
France is the third economy of the European Union.On the first and second countries are located such as Germany and the United Kingdom, respectively. The latter is in the process of leaving the European Union, but is still an official member of this union. France's GDP at purchasing power parity is, according to data for 2016, 2,699 trillion US dollars. According to this indicator, the country is on the eleventh place in the world. GDP at the official rate. - 2,448 trillion US dollars. Below the poverty line is 7.7% of the population.
In the structure of French GDP plays a key roleservices sector. It gives 79.8% of GDP. The key sector is tourism. The high share of the service sector in the French GDP is largely due to just this industry. Industry accounts for 18.3% of gross domestic product. The key sectors are engineering, chemical and metallurgy. Agriculture gives 1.9% of GDP. The economically active population, according to data for 2017, is 30 million people. Of these, 71.8% are employed in the services sector, 24.3% for industry, and 3.8% for agriculture. The average salary of 34,800 euros, after deduction of taxes - 26,400. The state is in 29th place in the rating of ease of doing business.
In the late 2000s, most countries of the world coveredrecession. However, France was able to quickly stop the fall of economic indicators. Per capita, as of 2016, accounted for 42,400 US dollars. This is 330% of the global average. This is a record high per capita GDP in France, if we consider the period from 1960 to 2016, the year. Experts predict that in the 2018th, this figure will increase even more.
France's GDP in the first quarter of 2017increased by 1%. This is 0.2% less than in the past, but more than forecast figures. During the period from 1950 to 2017, the average French GDP growth over the years was 3.19%. The largest increase was recorded in the second quarter of 1969. Then the GDP growth in France was 12.5%. As for the record low, this value fell on the recent recession. In the first quarter of 2009, French GDP fell by 3.8%.
In 2016, France’s exports to variouscountries of the world amounted to 505.4 billion US dollars. This is less than the previous one. Goods such as machinery and equipment, aircraft, plastics, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, iron and steel, and beverages are also being exported. Among the main export partners of France in the first place is Germany. It accounts for 16.7% of the total.
Other export partners include countrieslike Belgium, Italy, Spain, UK, USA and the Netherlands. The volume of imports of France in 2016 amounted to 525.4 billion US dollars. This figure also decreased compared with the previous year.
Trade balance is negative andamounts to $ 20 billion. Such goods as machinery and equipment, vehicles, crude oil, aircraft, plastics, chemicals are imported from abroad. Germany’s key import partner is, again, Germany. It accounts for 19.5% of the total value.
Other import partners includesuch countries as Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom and China. One of the key points of the new French government is the diversification of the market, so experts expect the expansion of cooperation of the state in question with Asia. The volume of foreign direct investment in December 2016 amounted to 1.1 trillion dollars. This is more than a year earlier. Total external debt is $ 5.6 trillion. Unfortunately, this figure also increased in 2016.
France remains one of the fastest growing countries in the world. But whether the results planned by the government and the president will show the reform remains questionable.
