Ostrum
  • News & Chronicles
  • France
  • Euro Area
  • United States
  • International
  • Politics & Society
  • Monetary Policy
  • Media
  • Decoding
  • About Philippe Waechter
Philippe Waechter's blog
  • Insights
  • About us
  • Expertise
  • Our people
  • Media

Philippe Waechter's blog
My french blog
  • News & Chronicles
  • France
  • Euro Area
  • United States
  • International
  • Politics & Society
  • Monetary Policy
  • Media
  • Decoding
  • About Philippe Waechter
  • News & Chronicles
  • France
  • Euro Area
  • United States
  • International
  • Politics & Society
  • Monetary Policy
  • Media
  • Decoding
Philippe Waechter's blog
Prévôté
Previous Next
  • 4 min

Purchasing power, debt and jobs – the impossible French equation

  • 24 January 2019
  • Philippe Waechter
  • Employment Dynamics
  • Households' indebtedness
  • Purchasing Power
  • Yellow vests
Total
0
Shares
0
0
0

This post is available in pdf format Forbes-23-01-2019-PW-en

Careful observation of the French economy provides some insight into the swift escalation in social unrest since November. The initial question of purchasing power sparked off the movement in November. At the start of the financial crisis, purchasing power was not too severely hit initially due to the hefty impact of automatic stabilizers, i.e. economic mechanisms that help even out the effects of shocks over time via redistribution. This system had worked fairly well in the past, keeping GDP fluctuations down during economic downturns. This is one of the key aspects of the French redistributive model.
With a continued weaker macroeconomic situation than in the past, the economy adapted. Three major changes can help shed some light on the social strife that has been dragging down the French economy.

The first problem is that French economic trend growth is now more sluggish than before the 2008/2009 crisis, and this has an impact on purchasing power trends.
We can analyze this situation using the chart below, providing an overview of purchasing power trends on the one hand (demand) and productivity data on the other (supply).
The purple line shows the trend in purchasing power per consumption unit and the blue line plots productivity (GDP per hour worked). We can see that these two indicators ran parallel before the 2007 crisis, then diverged until 2012/2013 before converging again, although with weaker trend growth than before the crisis. Under normal circumstances, these two indicators should move at a similar pace, and a long-lasting divergence is not feasible i.e. wages cannot be disconnected from income creation via the production process

1 2Next page
Related Topics
  • Employment Dynamics
  • Households' indebtedness
  • Purchasing Power
  • Yellow vests
On the same topic
  • 3 min

From Yesterday to Today – November 3 – France, its Public Deficit and the fragility of the Euro Area

  • 4 November 2020
  • France

Philippe Waechter

The IMF suggests that France should revive its economy but also should plan a strategy to rebalance its public finances as soon as activity picks up. Its fear is a…
  • Euro Area
  • Public Finance Sustainability
  • Sovereign Debt Crisis
  • Structural Deficit
READ
  • 3 min

From Yesterday to Today – October 30 – Spectacular rebound in growth while awaiting containment

  • 30 October 2020
  • Euro Area

Philippe Waechter

The GDP in France and in the Eurozone countries has clearly improved over the three Summer months. Nevertheless, the level of activity remains a little below 4% of the 2019…
  • GDP Growth
READ
  • 3 min

From Yesterday to Today – October 29 – What impact would the November lockdown have on activity in France?

  • 29 October 2020
  • France

Philippe Waechter

With a conservative assumption on the impact of containment of -6% in the last quarter, GDP would contract -10.8% in 2020 and grow by + 3.5% in 2021. Convergence towards 2019 GDP would take place around 2026/2027
  • Covid-19 Impact on Growth
  • Lockdown in France
  • Social Dynamics
READ
Subscribe to the newsletter

All the news from Philippe Waechter’s blog in your mailbox

Loading
ABOUT PHILIPPE WAECHTER

Ostrum's expert magazine

ABOUT OSTRUM AM
  • About us
  • Media room
  • Our publications
FOLLOW ME ON
EXTERNAL LINKS
  • Economists
  • Think tank
  • Central banks
  • Blog roll
©Ostrum AM 2019
An affiliate of : Plan de travail 2

Input your search keywords and press Enter.