GDP of France: dynamics, growth, structure, external sector

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 ensured high growth rates of French GDP in recent decades.

Short review

The French economy is gooddiversified across all sectors. The government 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 terrorist acts, workers' strikes and bad weather, France remains the most touristy country in the world. In 2016, it was visited by 83 million foreigners, with 530,000 of them coming to Euro-2016.

Current situation

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 allocated for the fulfillment of these tasks. While the results of the program are not yet visible. The budget for 2017 in France also includes a reduction in income taxes for households, small and medium-sized businesses. François Hollande has already managed two extremely unpopular economic reforms, which led to large-scale protests.

The "Macron Law" allowed enterprises to work in thesome Sundays of the month and much more freely set the payment for labor. "The Law of El Homri" was also aimed at this sphere, which provoked a stormy protest of the trade unions.

Of GDP

France is the third economy of the European Union. On the first and second, such countries as Germany and Great Britain, respectively. The latter is in the process of withdrawing from the European Union, but is still an official member of this association. 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. 7.7% of the population are below the poverty line.

In the structure of France's GDP, a key roleservices sector. It gives 79.8% of GDP. The key sector is tourism. The high share of the service sector in France's GDP is largely due to this sector. Industry accounts for 18.3% of gross domestic product. The key sectors are engineering, chemical and metallurgy. Agriculture accounts for 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% in industry, and 3.8% in agriculture. The average salary is 34,800 euros, after deduction of taxes - 26,400. The state is on the 29th place in the rating of ease of doing business.

GDP per capita of France

In the late 2000's most of the world coveredrecession. However, France managed to quickly stop the decline in economic indicators. The per capita, as of 2016, is 42,400 US dollars. This is 330% of the world average. This is the record high GDP of France per capita, if we consider the period from 1960 to 2016. Experts predict that in 2018 this figure will increase even more.

Growth of economy

In the first quarter of 2017, France's GDPincreased by 1%. This is 0.2% less than in the past, but more than forecasted. For the period from 1950 to 2017, the average GDP growth of France by years was 3.19%. The largest increase in the indicator was recorded in the second quarter of 1969. Then, France's GDP growth was 12.5%. As for the record low, this was due to the recent recession. In the first quarter of 2009, France's GDP decreased by 3.8%.

External Sector

In 2016, France's exports to variousof the world amounted to 505.4 billion US dollars. This is less than in the previous one. For export there are such goods as machinery and equipment, aircraft, plastics, chemicals, pharmaceutical products, cast iron and steel, and beverages. Among the main export partners of France in the first place is Germany. It accounts for 16.7% of the total.

Among other export partners, such countries,As Belgium, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, the United States and the Netherlands. The volume of imports of France in 2016 was 525.4 billion US dollars. This indicator also decreased compared to the previous year.

The trade balance is negative andis 20 billion US dollars. Imported from abroad are goods such as machinery and equipment, vehicles, crude oil, aircraft, plastics, chemicals. The key partner of the State under review for imports is again Germany. It accounts for 19.5% of the total value.

Among other import partners, one can single outsuch countries as Belgium, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Great Britain and China. One of the key points of the new government of France is the diversification of the market, so experts expect the cooperation of the state in question with Asia to expand. The volume of direct foreign investment in December 2016 amounted to 1.1 trillion dollars. This is more than a year earlier. The total external debt is $ 5.6 trillion. Unfortunately, this indicator also increased in 2016th.

France remains one of the fastest growing countries in the world. But will the result of the planned reforms by the government and president remain questionable.