On the world economic scenario, as regards GDP at current prices (International monetary fund, World economic outlook database, October 2014), with its 2902.33 billion dollars ($), France is in fifth place after the United States ($ 17416.25 billion), China ($ 10355.35 billion), Japan ($ 4,769.80 billion) and Germany ($ 3,820.46 billion). At the European level, the total current price GDP of the 18 eurozone countries amounts to $ 13,398.23 billion. Foreign contributes 21.6%, second only to Germany (28.6%) and followed by Italy, with 15.9% ($ 2,129.27 billion), and Spain, with 10, 5% ($ 1400.48 billion).
According to Usprivateschoolsfinder, France is the third largest contributor to the total budget of the European Union, after Germany and the United Kingdom (2014, http://www.economie.gouv.fr/les-ministeres/directions-ministere-finances-comptes-publics ). According to the 2015 finance bill, the total amount of resources that France has planned to allocate to the European budget for 2015 is estimated at 22.6 billion euros, corresponding to 16.1% of the total and 8, 1% of the country’s net tax revenues. Nonetheless, the constant deficit in the trade balance stands out since 2004 (with a peak of 80 billion euros in 2012), to which various factors contribute, the main one being the loss of competitiveness. However, there are also structural reasons linked to the strategies implemented by France in the field of exports: excessive industrial specialization, marked geographical orientation of exports themselves and a production system not sufficiently renewed to keep pace with globalization. The increase in the deficit with foreign countries is caused in particular by the increase in energy costs and by the manufacturing deficit. In this last field, the automotive sector is the one with the worst performance in France; the IT and electronic, textile and metallurgical sectors are also in deficit. On the other hand, exports in the aeronautical industry have increased and, albeit with ups and downs, the balance for agri-food, luxury and pharmaceuticals remains positive. The increase in the deficit with foreign countries is caused in particular by the increase in energy costs and by the manufacturing deficit. In this last field, the automotive sector is the one with the worst performance in France; the IT and electronic, textile and metallurgical sectors are also in deficit. On the other hand, exports in the aeronautical industry have increased and, albeit with ups and downs, the balance for agri-food, luxury and pharmaceuticals remains positive. The increase in the deficit with foreign countries is caused in particular by the increase in energy costs and by the manufacturing deficit. In this last field, the automotive sector is the one with the worst performance in France; the IT and electronic, textile and metallurgical sectors are also in deficit. On the other hand, exports in the aeronautical industry have increased and, albeit with ups and downs, the balance for agri-food, luxury and pharmaceuticals remains positive.
Nationally, the capital region (Île de France) remains economically dominant compared to the rest of the French territory (INSEE data). In 2011 its GDP was 601 billion euros, or 30% of the national GDP (F. Metropolitana), while the region, with its 11.9 million residents, represented only 19% of the total. Île-de-France is the only net importer of labor. There are many commuters who work there without residing there, thus contributing to increasing the GDP per resident and placing it among the five major European economic areas. Its growth from 2000 onwards is one of the highest in Western Europe and its dynamism is favored by an increasingly marked sector specialization, mainly aimed at the tertiary sector and more particularly at services for commerce.
On May 17, 2013, the law authorizing the marriage of persons of the same sex, called marriage for all, was published (Law May 17, 2013 no. 404). In 2013, approximately 231,000 marriages between people of different sex and 7,000 between people of the same sex were celebrated, the latter spread over more than 2,900 different municipalities. In the meantime, the number of civil unions (PACS, PActe Civil de Solidarité, established by the l. 15 nov. 1999 nr. 944) has steadily progressed between 2001 and 2010, then recording a sharp decline in 2011, followed by a slight resumed in 2012 (+ 5.5%), during which about 160,200 PACS were signed, of which about 7,000 were same-sex people.
Economic and financial policy
In the years preceding the international financial crisis, France launched an articulated process of decentralization of the functions of the State aimed at improving the quality and efficiency of local services and at encouraging the accountability of local authorities in the process of consolidating accounts public. In addition, the central administration has launched a series of measures to reduce public spending, including the reform of the social security system, the reduction of unemployment benefits, the revision of personal income tax and the local tax. on business activity. Starting from the second half of 2008, economic policy priorities have changed and government authorities have promptly adopted counter-cyclical measures aimed at preventing and containing the effects of the recession on credit, the real market and employment. In particular, in addition to intervening to support the liquidity and solvency of large institutions and to encourage bank credit, in 2009 the State supported the national production system by increasing public spending and providing subsidies for investments in infrastructures. To boost the competitiveness of French companies and increase the country’s economic growth potential, the authorities have fostered research and innovation, mainly with fiscal measures, and extended the powers of the Competition Authority. In order to create a healthy economic environment for the development of entrepreneurial activity, the government has pursued administrative and fiscal simplification for small and medium-sized enterprises and newly established companies, resolved to reduce the timing of payments to businesses to limit liquidity problems, revised the regulatory framework governing financial transactions, subsidized the guarantee fund for the medium / long-term consolidation of loans granted by banks to companies. On the labor market, measures were taken to preserve employment levels and unemployment benefits were temporarily extended, while in 2010 the social security system was reformed and early retirement incentives were abolished, previously introduced to favor generational turnover. Despite these interventions, France has been severely hit by the global recession and the subsequent economic crisis that has occurred since 2011 in the euro area, with social repercussions characterized by high unemployment extended to all age groups, and macroeconomic imbalances in the accounts. public and in the trade balance.
Starting from the two-year period 2012-13, the government has adopted an economic policy strategy that combines fiscal tightening, in particular for large companies and the wealthiest social classes, and the reduction, in the medium term, of the public spending, also with reference to the social security system. This policy entailed the rationalization of spending at the central government level, the centralization of purchases and spending by ministries in information and communication technologies, the reduction of state agencies, the application to the public sector of the wage block already introduced. in 2010 and the stabilization of the number of civil servants. At the same time, in 2013, public transfers to local authorities were curtailed and a rationalization plan for sub-national governments was adopted. To promote investments, various measures were launched, mainly of a fiscal nature, to support competitiveness and employment and a program was launched, shared with businesses, to simplify administrative procedures. On the labor market, in the face of persistent rigidities that characterize it, the French government has adopted measures to ensure adequate vocational training and facilitate rapid reintegration of the unemployed.
