France Market, Market Of France

The French Republic or “Republique francaise†in the French language is a democracy which is organized as a unitary semi-presidential republic. The economy of France is a developed one and is the sixth-largest economy in the world. France Market accommodates both extensive private enterprise with government ownership retained in certain key infrastructure sectors such as railway, electricity, aircraft and telecommunications. However, since the last decade, the government has been trying to promote more and more private enterprise with government holdings being let off in sectors such as telecommunications, airways and financial services sectors such as insurance and banking. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for France on a Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) at the end of 2006 was estimated at $ 1.871 trillion. France is one of the founding members of the European Union (EU) founded in 1992 and boats of the largest land area among al the EU members. The country is also a founding member of the United Nations, the G-8 (Group of eight industrialized nations) and the Latin Union. It is one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and acts as an acknowledged nuclear power accounting for nearly 80% of the country’s electricity production.

One of the main facets of the French Economy is the free market structure of the economy based on the lines of a developed economy. France is considered to be 66.1% free and ranks among 26th out of 41 for the freest European economies. Some of the highlights of the French economy are the low poverty rates, low rates of income inequality and a very strong social services system such as health care, retirement benefits and education among the large economies of the world. But one of the main weaknesses of the French economy is the unemployment rate which was almost 9% at the end of 2006. The problems with the French economy has never been its productivity (in fact by the latest figures published by the OECD in 2005, the productivity for the economy was higher than the USA, UK and Germany) if the productivity is measured on a GDP per hour basis. But due to a low proportion of the population engaged in the workforce, the GDP per capita for the economy is significantly lower than most of the developed economies of Europe and the USA. Being the most popular international tourist destination in the world, the tourism industry is an integral part of the French economy.

Some of the important French markets would be:

Manufactured items: France is the fifth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer of manufactured goods. The main industries are machinery, iron and steel, chemicals, automobiles, metallurgy, aircraft and electronics. The main export-oriented markets include machinery and transportation equipment, aircrafts, plastics and chemicals. The main export partners include Germany, Spain, Italy, USA and UK. As in 2005, Germany recorded the highest share for French manufactured goods at 14.7%. Manufactured imports also include machinery and equipment, vehicles, aircrafts and plastics. We find the evidence of Intra-Industry trade in the case of France as the highest imports also come from Germany.

Agriculture: Agriculture plays a significant role in the French economy than in most other industrialized countries. Agricultural output rests on livestock produce in the form of poultry products and meat. However, the main crops include wheat, sugar beets, corn, barley and potato. Fruit is also an important sector of agriculture as France is one of the leading wine producers of the world.

Labour market: The labour market in France has long been the pint of concern for economists worldwide. A lack of political will to undertake structural reforms to increase the size of the working population in the total population and lower work hours are considered to be the main cankers in the labour market. Strict employment protection and the minimum wage policy leaves little room for labour market reforms as the minimum wage is found to exceed the productivity for low skilled workers, which in turn, leads to structural unemployment problem.

Capital market: Share transactions in France are centred on the Bourse de Paris (Paris Stock Exchange), a public system which has incorporated the smaller exchanges at Lyons, Bordeaux, Marseille and Nantes. The stock exchange is controlled by the body called Commission des Opérations de Bourse.