Company investments drive growth / Losses of 2009 made up again/ Plastics processing segment suffers from ageing technology / No access to key growth markets / Focus on new technologies and recycling

摘要

Following a number of meagre years that began with the onset of the 2009 economic crisis, the French economy appears to have embarked on a growth path again. Although unemployment levels still stand at almost 10%, and despite the fact that exports - which had been picking up of late - have started to contract again, there are nevertheless signs of improvement. Data published by the national statistics office Insee (www. insee.fr) show the first, albeit slight, rise in private household spending levels in years, and company investments have also picked up since late 2015. Initial forecasts predict that the latter rose by 4.7% year-on-year.