Highly unlikely that France can be fixed in five years - Natixis

In view of Patrick Artus, Research Analyst at Natixis, even if the “right” policies are rapidly implemented in France, it is highly unlikely that the country will succeed in fixing its most severe problems in five years.

Key Quotes

“Correcting these problems will be a difficult and protracted process. They include:

• Clear and longstanding shortcomings in the education and vocational training system;
• Low product sophistication and weak corporate capital modernisation, when companies’ production costs are high. Climbing up the value chain on the back of increased competition and the effect of labour market reforms on labour costs can only be slow processes;
• An excessive corporate tax burden, the correction of which will require a reduction in the weight of public spending, which can only be gradual.”

“So it is not clear that the structural situation of the French economy will be markedly better in five years than today.”