Talk:Economy of France

Removed John Atkinson is a Fairy

Obviously does not belong.

"As France is the second most popular touristic country in the world, after Spain". It's not what I'm reading here: http://www.bts.gov/publications/us_international_travel_and_transportation_trends/overview.html. "Still, the United States, with 51 million foreign resident visits, surpassed Spain to become the second-most visited country worldwide. In comparison, France accounted for the most international overnight visits, with 76 million in 2000 (USDOC ITA 2001d)". If nobody bring evidence of Spain being the most visited country, I'm gonna correct this mistake.

According to the Spanish National Institute of Statistics (Instituto Nacional de Estadística, INE), Spain was visited in 2000 by 74.461.889 visitors, from which 47.897.915 tourists were tourist, who are defined as the people who spend at least a night in the country. http://www.ine.es

Scope of this article

Is the content of this article specificly about metropolitan France, or the entirety of France? Thank you. — Instantnood 22:14, Apr 13, 2005 (UTC)

It should be global for all France. However, France's oversea possessions have low demographic weight and economic importance. (Most of them, as far as I know, are highly subsidized.) David.Monniaux 22:32, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Contradiction in this article

The article claims France is the 5th largest economy while the inset box claims it is the 7th largest. On further inspection this contradiction is due to the method of measurement, nominal versus PPP. It would be better to make this distinction explicit to avoid confusion. - A.Rod (21:55, 8 October 2005(UTC))

• I agree; the table should be changed to 7th largest economy.

Nuclear weapon exports

• In addition, external demand plays a big part in the growth of this sector: for example, France exports great quantities of nuclear weapons and guns to the United States.

Huh? "Exports great quantities of nuclear weapons?" Source please. -Will Beback 23:03, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

Just Curious Re Euro GDP figures

I am just interested as to why Frances GDP is represented in Euros when the international standard is the US Dollar. When one says GDP in terms of the common usage even in specialized economic circles it is taken to be that they are speaking of US dollars. China and Japan are great examples of countries reporting GDP in US Dollars. Im going to make a note to self to change it to US dollars, as this is what I can see to be the standard from the other articles on economy. That is unless someone gives me a justified reasoning behind keeping it in Euros. But it is like oil, you dont sell Oil in Euros, or Gold or anything else. Neither the IMF or the World Bank use anything but US dollars. It seems to be against all international convention. Personally I would say that this has been done by someone with a European nationalist sentament. But as someone who is in the field of economics and is thus a "expert" I find this bizzar. And no Im not American, but that doesnt matter this is about convention and being as accurate as possible. As far as I know the Government of Canada does not even publish its own GDP stats in Canadian dollars because the ammounts they give out match the USD ammounts. --Meanie 20:22, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

If I get time I will be re writing huge sections of this article to correct massive inaccuracies. For example the very citation used to support that French Unions are weak, says the exact opposite. Someone has slanted this article to be all shine and glory on the French republic. Totally deflecting that the immigrant population 10% or more has an unemployment rate in excess of 50%. The entrenched social culture that prevents upward social mobility. It would also be fair to denote that the 9.9% unemployement rate (CIA world factbook) is composed of the same individuals year after year because it is impossible to fire anyone. Also to add that as someone in economics, if you eliminated these laws overnight unemployment would drop about 2% pts. With a poverty rate that is less than the unemployment rate it means that government policies are encouraging unemployment. My problem is this article shows ONLY the good, and not the Bad at the same time. This makes France sound like a great place to live, when in reality unless you know someone or have money you cant even get a job at a corner store. Not having the threat of being fired also hinders economic productivity. So There is a lot that should be changed about this article to reflect reality. It only has two sources. I can bring in 10-15 reputable sources to support my position vs 1 for the status quo, which is in French in English Wiki. (the language thing isnt a problem for myself but it is for anyone else trying to check it out.) --Meanie 20:32, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

And the GDP growth at the bottom is grossly exadurated. The real numbers are 2002 1.2%, 2003 0.2%, etc etc. I dont have information on the last two years I have yet to find that this was just a simple search (the economist mag. Its a third party non government source with a very high reputation amongst economists.) --Meanie 20:38, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

oil?

When did France quit producing oil?