Talk:Economy of France

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[edit] Removed John Atkinson is a Fairy

Obviously does not belong.

"As France is the second most popular touristic country in the world, after Spain". It's not what I'm reading here: http://www.bts.gov/publications/us_international_travel_and_transportation_trends/overview.html. "Still, the United States, with 51 million foreign resident visits, surpassed Spain to become the second-most visited country worldwide. In comparison, France accounted for the most international overnight visits, with 76 million in 2000 (USDOC ITA 2001d)". If nobody bring evidence of Spain being the most visited country, I'm gonna correct this mistake.

According to the Spanish National Institute of Statistics (Instituto Nacional de Estadística, INE), Spain was visited in 2000 by 74.461.889 visitors, from which 47.897.915 tourists were tourist, who are defined as the people who spend at least a night in the country. http://www.ine.es

I think that they meant to say that France is the most visited country in Europe, after Spain.

[edit] Scope of this article

I was wondering, how have the drop in tourism and the boycott of some French goods (wine etc.) affected France's economy during the war with Iraq? A lot? A little?Chessdude111 12:07, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Is the content of this article specificly about metropolitan France, or the entirety of France? Thank you. — Instantnood 22:14, Apr 13, 2005 (UTC)

It should be global for all France. However, France's oversea possessions have low demographic weight and economic importance. (Most of them, as far as I know, are highly subsidized.) David.Monniaux 22:32, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Contradiction in this article

The article claims France is the 5th largest economy while the inset box claims it is the 7th largest. On further inspection this contradiction is due to the method of measurement, nominal versus PPP. It would be better to make this distinction explicit to avoid confusion. - A.Rod (21:55, 8 October 2005(UTC))

  • I agree; the table should be changed to 7th largest economy.

France is now the fifthe biggest economy of the world, ahead of the uk. See http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/abe2ffc4-c08b-11dc-b0b7-0000779fd2ac.html —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.181.119.147 (talk) 14:37, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Nuclear weapon exports

  • In addition, external demand plays a big part in the growth of this sector: for example, France exports great quantities of nuclear weapons and guns to the United States.

Huh? "Exports great quantities of nuclear weapons?" Source please. -Will Beback 23:03, 16 March 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Just Curious Re Euro GDP figures

I am just interested as to why Frances GDP is represented in Euros when the international standard is the US Dollar. When one says GDP in terms of the common usage even in specialized economic circles it is taken to be that they are speaking of US dollars. China and Japan are great examples of countries reporting GDP in US Dollars. Im going to make a note to self to change it to US dollars, as this is what I can see to be the standard from the other articles on economy. That is unless someone gives me a justified reasoning behind keeping it in Euros. But it is like oil, you dont sell Oil in Euros, or Gold or anything else. Neither the IMF or the World Bank use anything but US dollars. It seems to be against all international convention. Personally I would say that this has been done by someone with a European nationalist sentament. But as someone who is in the field of economics and is thus a "expert" I find this bizzar. And no Im not American, but that doesnt matter this is about convention and being as accurate as possible. As far as I know the Government of Canada does not even publish its own GDP stats in Canadian dollars because the ammounts they give out match the USD ammounts. --Meanie 20:22, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

If I get time I will be re writing huge sections of this article to correct massive inaccuracies. For example the very citation used to support that French Unions are weak, says the exact opposite. Someone has slanted this article to be all shine and glory on the French republic. Totally deflecting that the immigrant population 10% or more has an unemployment rate in excess of 50%. The entrenched social culture that prevents upward social mobility. It would also be fair to denote that the 9.9% unemployement rate (CIA world factbook) is composed of the same individuals year after year because it is impossible to fire anyone. Also to add that as someone in economics, if you eliminated these laws overnight unemployment would drop about 2% pts. With a poverty rate that is less than the unemployment rate it means that government policies are encouraging unemployment. My problem is this article shows ONLY the good, and not the Bad at the same time. This makes France sound like a great place to live, when in reality unless you know someone or have money you cant even get a job at a corner store. Not having the threat of being fired also hinders economic productivity. So There is a lot that should be changed about this article to reflect reality. It only has two sources. I can bring in 10-15 reputable sources to support my position vs 1 for the status quo, which is in French in English Wiki. (the language thing isnt a problem for myself but it is for anyone else trying to check it out.) --Meanie 20:32, 20 November 2006 (UTC)
And the GDP growth at the bottom is grossly exadurated. The real numbers are 2002 1.2%, 2003 0.2%, etc etc. I dont have information on the last two years I have yet to find that this was just a simple search (the economist mag. Its a third party non government source with a very high reputation amongst economists.) --Meanie 20:38, 20 November 2006 (UTC)
Any of the peer-reviewed published studies on mobility show France to be one of the most mobile nations in the world - just behind the Nordics and far more mobile than the US/UK etc economies. I don't think we should just speculate that their economies are immobile on a gut feeling. They are also the most productive major economy, as cited by Eurostat and the US' BLS foreign statistics. I don't think we should take Meanie's advice and suggest France's economy harms these things when they are actually very productive and mobile. In fact, I think the productivity and mobility statistics should be included.
There are clearly many different economic views on the values of the French economic system and we should not litter this article with any speculation from a single view. Indeed, many French support a rigid employment system even if it adds a couple percent to unemployment. It also encourages companies to invest in captial and increase productivity, and French demographics show labor will be much tighter in the future. Job security contributes to their higher education and provides a mechanism to encourage high-skill development and long-term planning.

[edit] oil?

When did France quit producing oil?

[edit] €12, not 12 €

This article uses French typographic/syntax conventions. The English way of writing a figure: "€12". Not "12 euros", not "12 €". SergioGeorgini (talk) 20:00, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] FRANCE HAS OVERANKED THE UK AS WORLD'S 5TH ECONOMY !!!

According to the FINANCIAL TIME, the size of the British economy has slipped below that of France for the first time since 1999 thanks to the slide in the value of the pound.

The US, Japan, Germany, China and France all had larger economies than the UK in the third quarter of 2007 – and in 2006.

The figures represented a “political economic cataclysm” for Britain, said Martin Weale, the director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, who noted that the UK government often boasted of Britain’s being the fourth largest economy, and then the fifth largest when China overtook the UK in 2005.

The UK’s demotion to sixth place will put pressure on the government’s reputation for economic competence, particularly as it is Britain’s ancient rival, France, that is moving ahead.

Mr Weale said that, although the change in rank had no immediate effect on British living standards and the UK still had slightly higher gross domestic product per head, the falling exchange rate would crimp income growth compared with overall growth in economic output.

In 2006, the GDP of France was €1,792bn (£1,353bn) compared with £1,304bn for the UK. With sterling worth €1.47 on average in 2006, this put the UK economy comfortably 6.7 per cent ahead of the French economy.

But with sterling’s more than 10 per cent fall against the euro in the past six months to €1.32 to the pound, the UK’s economy in 2008 is now 4 per cent smaller than France.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/abe2ffc4-c08b-11dc-b0b7-0000779fd2ac.html

THANKS TO WIKIPEDIA TO UPDATE ITS DATA !!!

Frederick CARLES-FONT (carlesfjf@yahoo.com) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.66.9.250 (talk) 20:51, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

     According to IMF, here are a comparison between France and UK : (you can obtain this result on IMF's web site : http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2008/01/weodata/index.aspx)
     France's GDP (current prices) : $2,252 (2006)   $2,560 (2007)
     UK's GDP (current prices) : $2,402 (2006) $2,772 (2007)
     France's GDP PPP : $1,956 (2006) $2,046 (2007)
     UK's GDP PPP: $2,018 (2006) $2,137 (2007)  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.178.155.99 (talk) 14:44, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] whats a 'hearthes'

3,500 wealthiest hearthes have seen their real revenue increase by 42,6% [4], while 90% of the total hearthes only saw an increase of 4,6%

is this supposed to mean family? this is not an english word, ive checked the dictionary. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 158.143.155.251 (talk) 18:26, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

'Hearth' means home in English (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hearth). In this case it's probably a literal translation of the French word 'foyer'. The proper translation in this context would be 'household'. 66.130.156.84 (talk) 03:27, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Weapon industry and mideast

"In addition, external demand plays a big part in the growth of this sector: for example, France exports great quantities of weaponry to the Middle East."

Can we have statistics on this? The only recent strong clients in mideast for France are the United Arabs Emirates (Leclerc and Mirage 2000) and Saudi (Frigates) while France's important deals were too in South America, Europe and Asia lately (Scorpene subs to Chile, India and Malaysia; Frigates to Singapore and Taiwan, Eurocopter Tigers to Australia, electronics and Mirage 2000 to Greece). Matthieu (talk) 11:31, 10 April 2008 (UTC)