France Makes Progress

The European Commission has highlighted the progress of French competitiveness but also pointed out structural issues in the French economy, Euractiv.fr reported. The macroeconomic situation in France is improving–as of March 7, the country was no longer on the list of countries with “excessive macroeconomic imbalances”. According to the commission’s assessment, Portugal, Bulgaria and France have now joined the category of countries with “macroeconomic imbalances”, while Italy, Croatia and Cyprus remain in the category with “excessive imbalances”. The Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure was introduced in 2011 as a result of the economic crisis. Set up as a preventive measure, it is based on an annual analysis by the commission of each country’s economic and social situation, followed by Country-Specific Recommendations. Every year the commission looks at the progress made in implementing those CSRs to rank each country assessed accordingly. In 2017, France was categorized as having “excessive” macroeconomic imbalances due to weak competitiveness dynamics and ever-increasing public debt. The commission now believes that progress has been made on both these fronts.