In 2022, France was the seventh largest economy in the world, behind the United States of America, China, Japan, Germany, India, and the United Kingdom. That year, the gross domestic product of the French economy was 2.78 trillion U.S dollars, following a GDP growth rate of 6.5 percent in 2021, and 2.5 percent in 2022. This followed an eight percent decline in GDP in 2020, due to the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although GDP took a significant hit, the French unemployment rate was not affected by the crisis, and continued to decline, following a trend visible since 2015. On the other hand, the inflation rate increased rapidly towards the end of 2020 and reached a peak of 6.3 percent in February 2023. As of June 2023, the French population was still facing significant inflation, with some sectors being more affected than others. For instance, prices were specifically high in the transport sector with a difference of six percent in comparison with the previous year, and finally, food prices suffered the highest rise with around 13.7 percent of inflation rate.
COVID-19 impact on France economy in 2020
In 2020, French society like most of the countries in the world was affected in many ways by the COVID-19 crisis, the unprecedented situation called attention to the flaws in the health system, the lack of medical personal, and need to allocate more budget to these areas. The crisis also gave more exposure to sometimes forgotten but essential professions in society, like nurses or supermarket cashiers, positions largely filled by women. Furthermore, the COVID-19 crisis witnessed the rise of an inevitable interest for more flexibility at work, especially in terms of location since an important part of French employees started incorporating remote work into their routine. Overall, the French economy was directly impacted by the three quarantines the country went through in 2020 and 2021, during this period businesses such as restaurants, hotels, bars, or clubs had a hard time surviving the crisis. For instance, the business confidence index was 96.92 in May 2020 when the first quarantine slowly came to an end, compared with 100.6 one year earlier.
France's cost of living crisis
Although many of the factors driving the current crisis were noticeable towards the end of 2021, the situation intensified the following Spring due to a series of price increases mostly on housing, energy, transport, and food, a direct consequence of the Russia-Ukraine war which started in February 2022. The cost of living suffered a noticeable rise, and the French perception of the poverty line also increased. In 2019, for example, a single person was considered poor if they were earning less than 1,193 euros net per month. In comparison, one year later this minimum income under which a person was considered poor was 1,228 euros and even reached 1,377 euros in 2023. Differences between French regions were also noticeable, life in the French capital being objectively more expensive, in Paris someone was considered poor if they did not receive a minimum income of 1,495 euros net per month. It is unclear how long this crisis will last, with the annual inflation rate expected to remain high, at 5.6 percent before possibly falling to 2.5 percent in 2024, but for now, an important part of the population had to implement various strategies to fight high inflation. These strategies included buying less meat, going to discount stores, and often looking for reduced prices when grocery shopping.
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