France has a highly developed social market economy with strong state participation in strategic sectors. It is the world's seventh-largest economy by nominal GDP and the ninth-largest economy by PPP, constituting around 3% of world GDP. France has a diversified economy,Country profile: France , Euler Hermes that is dominated by the service sector (which in 2017 represented 78.8% of its GDP), whilst the industrial sector accounted for 19.5% of its GDP and the primary sector accounted for the remaining 1.7%.Country profil: France , CIA World factbook In 2024, France was the largest Foreign Direct Investment recipient in Europe, and Europe's second-largest spender in research and development.How does your country invest in R&D ? , UNESCO Institute for Statistics (retrieved on 27 September 2020) It was ranked among the 10 most innovative countries in the world by the 2020 Bloomberg Innovation Index,These are the world's most innovative countries , Business Insider as well as the 15th most competitive nation globally according to the 2019 Global Competitiveness Report (up 2 notches compared to 2018). It was the fifth-largest trading nation in the world (and second in Europe after Germany). France is also the most-visited destination in the world, as well as the European Union's leading agricultural power.France: the market , Société Générale (latest Update: September 2020)
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in 2025, France was the world's 25th country by GDP per capita with $48,981 per inhabitant. In 2023, France was listed on the United Nations's Human Development Index with a value of 0.920 (indicating very high human development) and 25th on the Corruption Perceptions Index in 2024. Among OECD members, France has a highly efficient and strong social security system, which comprises roughly 31.7% of GDP.
Paris is a leading global city, and has one of the largest city GDP in the world.The global geography of world cities , iied, 9 July 2020 It ranks as the first city in Europe (and 3rd worldwide) by the number of companies classified in Fortune'''s Fortune Global 500.10 reasons to move to Paris La Défense , Official website of Paris La Défense Paris produced US$738 billion (or US$882 billion at market exchange rates) or around 1/3 of the French economy in 2018 while the economy of the Paris metropolitan area—the largest in Europe with London—generates around 1/3 of France's GDP or around $1.0 trillion. Paris has been ranked as the 2nd most attractive global city in the world in 2019 by KPMG.Global Cities Investment Monitor 2019 , KPMG, 2019 La Défense, Paris's Central Business District, was ranked by Ernst & Young in 2017 as the leading business district in continental Europe, and fourth in the world.The attractiveness of world-class business districts: Paris La Défense vs. its global competitors , EY, November 2017 The OECD is headquartered in Paris, the nation's financial capital. The other major economic centres of the country include Lyon, Toulouse (centre of the European aerospace industry), Marseille and Lille.
France's economy entered the recession of the late 2000s later and appeared to leave it earlier than most affected economies, only enduring four-quarters of contraction. However, France experienced stagnant growth between 2012 and 2014, with the economy expanding by 0% in 2012, 0.8% in 2013 and 0.2% in 2014. Growth picked up in 2015 with a growth of 0.8%. This was followed by a growth of 1.1% for 2016, a growth of 2.2% for 2017, and a growth of 2.1% for 2018.
According to INSEE (2021), non-financial and non-agricultural medium-sized firms employed 3 million full-time equivalent employees (24.3% of the workforce), accounted for 27% of investment, 30% of turnover, and 26% of value added, despite accounting for only 1.6% of total firms in France.
History
Corporations
With 31 companies that are part of the world's biggest 500 companies, France was in 2020 the most represented European country in the 2020 Fortune Global 500, ahead of Germany (27 companies) and the UK (22).
As of August 2020, France was also the country that weighed the most on the Eurozone's EURO STOXX 50 (representing 36.4% of all total assets), ahead of Germany (35.2%).EURO STOXX 50 , 31 August 2020
Several French corporations rank amongst the largest in their industries such as Axa in insurance and Air France in air transportation. Luxury and consumer goods are particularly relevant, with L'Oreal being the world's largest cosmetic company while LVMH and Kering are the world's two largest luxury product companies. In energy and utilities, GDF-Suez and EDF are amongst the largest energy companies in the world, and Areva is a large nuclear-energy company; Veolia Environnement is the world's largest environmental services and water management company; Vinci SA, Bouygues and Eiffage are large construction companies; Michelin ranks in the top 3 tire manufacturers; JCDecaux is the world's largest outdoor advertising corporation; BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole and Société Générale rank amongst the largest banks in the world by assets. Capgemini and Atos are among the largest technology consulting companies.
Carrefour is the world's second-largest retail group in terms of revenue; Total is the world's fourth-largest private oil company; Lactalis is the world's largest dairy products group; Sanofi is the world's fifth-largest pharmaceutical company; Publicis is the world's third-largest advertising company; Groupe PSA is the world's 6th and Europe's 2nd largest automaker; Accor is the leading European hotel group; Alstom is one of the world's leading conglomerates in rail transport.
In 2022, the sector with the highest number of companies registered in France is Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate with 2,656,178 companies followed by Services and Retail Trade with 2,090,320 and 549,395 companies respectively.
Rise and decline of dirigisme France embarked on a programme of modernisation under state coordination. This programme of dirigisme, mostly implemented by governments between 1944 and 1983, involved the state control of certain industries such as transportation, energy and telecommunications as well as various incentives for private corporations to merge or engage in certain projects
The 1981 election of president François Mitterrand saw a short-lived increase in governmental control of the economy, nationalizing many industries and private banks. This form of increased dirigisme, was criticised as early as 1982. By 1983, the government decided to renounce dirigisme and start an era of rigueur ("rigor") or corporation. As a result, the government largely retreated from economic intervention; dirigisme has now essentially receded, though some of its traits remain. The French economy grew and changed under government direction and planning much more than in other European countries.
Despite being a widely liberalised economy, the government continues to play a significant role in the economy: government spending, at 56% of GDP in 2014, is the second-highest in the European Union. Labor conditions and wages are highly regulated. The government continues to own shares in corporations in several sectors, including energy production and distribution, automobiles, aerospace industry, shipbuilding, the arms industry, electronics industry, machine industry, metallurgy, fuels, chemical industry, transportation, and telecommunications.
France has a mixed market economy, with the majority of market activity driven by competitive private firms. However, a significant share of the market is owned by the state. According to France’s National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE), 1,751 French companies were state-controlled by the end of 2017. OECD identified the state-owned primary sectors as energy, transportation, finance, and manufacturing. The state maintains ownership of key sectors to ensure strategic control and prevent private monopolies.
Government finances
In April and May 2012, France held a presidential election in which the winner François Hollande had opposed austerity measures, promising to eliminate France's budget deficit by 2017. The new government stated that it aimed to cancel recently enacted tax cuts and exemptions for the wealthy, raising the top tax bracket rate to 75% on incomes over a million euros, restoring the retirement age to 60 with a full pension for those who have worked 42 years, restoring 60,000 jobs recently cut from public education, regulating rent increases; and building additional public housing for the poor.
In June 2012, Hollande's Socialist Party won an overall majority in the legislative elections, giving it the capability to amend the French Constitution and allowing immediate enactment of the promised reforms. French government bond interest rates fell 30% to record lows,Bloomberg (2012) French government bond interest rates (graph) less than 50 basis points above German government bond rates.Bloomberg (2012) German government bond interest rates (graph)
Hollande's successor as President of France, Emmanuel Macron, a centrist politician, took office in May 2017. His aim was to revive the euro zone’s second-largest economy.
In July 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the French government issued 10-years bonds which had negative interest rates, for the first time in its history (which means that investors buying French bonds will pay, rather than receive, interest for owning French sovereign debt).France issues first 10-year bond at negative interest rate , France 24, 4 July 2020
France possesses in 2020 the fourth-largest gold reserves in the world.Top 10 Countries with Largest Gold Reserves , US Global Investors, September 2020
Macron vowed in May 2023 to build factories, boost job creations and make France more independent, shaked by pension protests.
Central bank and currency
In March 2026, the Bank of France reported that it had completed a program to upgrade 129 metric tons of its gold reserves—approximately 5% of the total—by selling non-standard gold held in New York and purchasing compliant bars now stored in Paris, generating a one-off capital gain of nearly €13 billion due to high gold prices. The transaction occurred during the 2026 Iran war, which drove gold prices to record highs. The Bank of France stated that the decision was not politically motivated but was based on European market standards for gold trading.
National debt
The Government of France has run a budget deficit each year since the early 1970s. As of 2021, French government debt reached an equivalent of 118.6% of French GDP.
Under European Union rules, member states are supposed to limit their debt to 60% of output or be reducing the ratio structurally towards this ceiling, and run public deficits of no more than 3.0% of GDP.
In late 2012, credit-rating agencies warned that growing French government debt levels risked France's AAA credit rating, raising the possibility of a future credit downgrade and subsequent higher borrowing costs for the French government. In 2012 France was downgraded by ratings agencies Moody's, Standard & Poor's (S&P), and Fitch to an AA+ credit rating.
In December 2014 France's credit rating was further downgraded by Fitch and S&P to AA.
Macron, shaken by pension protests, vowed in May 2023 to build factories, boost job creations and make France more independent.
The Government of France experienced a significant shift in its bond market position on September 26, 2024, when its bond yield surpassed that of Spain for the first time since 2007. The yield on 10-year French bonds reached 2.97%, slightly exceeding the yield on Spanish bonds of similar maturity, despite France's typically higher credit rating.