The need to revive Euro area growth highlights the importance of the evolution of domestic and external demand in the core. This paper puts recent demand patterns in France, Germany, and Belgium into historical perspective. We find that, first, dynamics for private consumption, non-residential...

The French economy weathered global crisis better than most of its peers. The authorities have taken important policy actions to stabilize the financial system and have implemented suitable fiscal stimulus to cushion the downturn. Executive Directors welcomed the policy, which aims to strengthen...

This paper presents an overview of the different methodologies that can be used to measure the amount of available slack in an economy. A comparison of these alternatives reveals that the evolution of the Nairu is crucial for understanding recent cyclical developments in the French economy. A...

This paper examines monetary transmission in France using the vector autoregression methodology. Interest rates are decomposed into external and domestic components, and a nonrecursive contemporaneous structure is used to identify the system. Innovations in the external component are found to...

This 2002 Article IV Consultation highlights that the economy of France is facing a fast-approaching demographic turnaround—with the active population beginning to decline in 2007 and reducing annual per-capita-GDP growth by about half a percentage point for a few decades. In 2002, the general...

This report evaluates the Observance of Standards and Codes on Monetary and Financial Policies Transparency and Fiscal Transparency for France. Up to mid-2001, different rules were applied to insurance firms regulated by the Insurance Code and to establishments regulated by the Code de la...

This note provides a report on the Observance of Standards and Codes in France, and provides updates on the transparency in monetary and financial policies. The framework for supervision and regulation applicable to a specific group of mutual insurance firms has been modified by adjusting the...

The transparency of budget presentation and the accountability to parliament have been improved. A clear view has been provided of the implementation of the objectives of the previous fiscal year for the central government. An annex to the budget showed cost-sharing contributions, which were...

Fiscal rules can help to counteract the deficits and spending biases that too often originate in the political process. Rules that constrain spending--rather than the balance--allow fiscal policy to be countercyclical. Yet the design of effective spending rules is by no means straightforward....

This book examines imbalances in seven major economies: China, France, Germany, India, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, evaluating key indicators agreed on by the G20 for identifying large imbalances, including public and private debt and private saving, and countries external...