The past quarter has contributed to heighten uncertainty over the growth trajectories of the major economies, which are facing a global shock to confidence and a reorganisation of their relative competitiveness. The American exceptionalism of growth that has long been above potential, even under the influence of a restrictive monetary policy, has been called into question by the new trade policy, which...

Back in February, François Bayrou's government managed to pass a thorny but unconvincing budget for 2025. Since then, you have rightfully forgotten about this topic: speculation about a potential new snap election (and tariffs, of course) took centre stage recently.
However, public finances remain the most critical and structural sticking point in French politics right now. Nothing has changed since last...

Economic activity declined slightly in France in Q4 2024 (-0.1% q/q), after +0.4% in Q3. This slight decline can be explained by a negative backlash after the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games (OPG), which supported activity by +0.2 percentage point (pp) in Q3. Annual growth therefore stood at 1.1% in 2024, stable compared to 2023.
In Q1 2025, growth is expected to be low but positive (+0.2% q/q), and...

Economic activity in France quickened in Q3 2024, with quarterly growth coming in at 0.4%, compared with 0.2% in Q1 and Q2. This uptick is explained by the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games, estimated to have added 0.2 percentage points to Q3 growth. At the end of Q3, carry-over growth for 2024 was 1.1%. 

The economy is not expected to have grown at all in Q4 2024 due to the boost from the Paris...

Due to latest political developments and recent soft data (BdF survey, PMIs etc.), we are currently reviewing into details our forecast for France. The final and official version will be published in CASA Eco next ‘World scenario’ that will be published on 20 December. In this paper, we introduce some key preliminary figures that we obtained, the main news is the downward revision of our growth forecast...

Despite a slight slowdown, economic activity continued to grow in France in Q2 2024, up 0.2% after 0.3% in Q1. The mid-year carry-over effect on growth thus stood at 0.9% for 2024. 

Third-quarter growth is expected to be strong, boosted by the Olympic and Paralympic Games, ahead of a negative backlash in the fourth quarter. Growth for full-year 2024 will come out at 1.1%, stable compared with the...

Economic activity continued to grow in France in Q1 2024, up 0.2% after 0.3% in Q4 2023. The growth overhang at the end of the first quarter thus stands at 0.6% for 2024. 

As we finalised our scenario before the dissolution of the National Assembly, it can be described as “politically neutral” or “with policy unchanged”. But the political picture that appears to be emerging, with none of the coalitions...

A month after President Emmanuel Macron dissolved the National Assembly and called the election, some signs of a French economy stalling have arguably appeared. At least this is what Bank of France Governor François Villeroy mentioned recently. In practice, this is fully debatable. Although previous episodes of political uncertainty in other countries have triggered downward growth revisions (eg, Greece...

Economic activity slowed significantly in France in 2023 on persistently high inflation and emphatic monetary tightening. The French economy grew 0.9% over the year (seasonal and working-day adjusted), after 2.5% in 2022, but avoided a recession. 

The economy is expected to recover in 2024, with annual growth stable at 0.9% but with higher quarterly growth than in 2023. Annual growth is expected to be...

After a soft landing, economic activity should accelerate over the next two years as past shocks dissipate. Lower inflation and still buoyant wages should enable the consumption rebound to continue. Investment, which should be more durably affected by monetary tightening, will not really pick up again until 2025, with the first effects of the expected monetary normalisation.