France

WHAT'S NEXT?: Discontent with political elites and country performance is driving the discourse and demand for action from the French public. With Presidential elections due in May 2017 it remains to be seen whether another political earthquake may happen in one of the EU's founding countries.

• Countries including South Korea, which aims to have 1 2GW of offshore wind installed by 2030, up from 100 MW today, and French plans to boost its existing 2 MW capacity to 12.4 GW by 2028, including 1.5GW of floating offshore wind.
• Germany's decline in national income (GDP) is forecast to be 6.6% in 2020 while Spain's GDP will fall by 11.1%, Italy's by 11.3 and France's by 11.4%.
• In 2020 Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US are all expected to go into recession.
• Continuing with the Digital Tax, French President Emmanuel Macron told French TV that he envisages an EU-wide digital tax on big tech multinationals, along the lines of a digital tax, which France plans to impose in 2020.
• Higher risk awareness and pent-up demand for social protection will drive growth in the coming years, with China in the lead: Up to 2030, China's premium pool will grow by a whopping EUR777bn - the market size of UK, France, Germany and Italy combined.
• National plans to support the deployment of refueling stations aim at reaching 1000 stations by 2030 (in China and Germany) or by 2028 in France, while South Korea aims at 1200 stations by 2040.
• Several weighted economic scenarios were used to determine the provisioning of performing loans, of which a more favourable scenario (GDP at -7% in France in 2020, +7.3% in 2021 and +1.8% in 2022) and a less favourable scenario (GDP at -15.1% in France in 2020, +6.6% in 2021 and +8% in 2022).
• Some EU Member States are expected to witness higher job losses than others - more than 5% in 2020 in France, Italy, Spain and Estonia.
• A French start-up has been launched with plans to build a 1 6GWh lithium-ion battery gigafactory in France by 2023 to help Europe meet the growing demand for electric vehicles and energy storage.
• The central bank of France will soon begin testing a central bank digital currency, while the People's Bank of China and the Marshall Islands are also set to roll out plans for digital currencies next year.
• The French stimulus package includes €315 billion ($347 billion USD) in loan guarantees and credit reinsurance schemes for businesses, which will extend substantial support for environmentally relevant sectors.
• EU member states such as Denmark, France, Ireland, and Netherland have taken initiatives to ban the sales of new diesel - and petrol-powered vehicles by 2030.
• If a tax could be agreed by Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Benelux and the EU Nordic countries, it would cover 59% of emissions from flights within Europe and raise €3.7 billion a year.
• Late last year seven countries led by France and Germany secured approval from Brussels to splash out €3.2 billion in state aid to build out Europe's stake in a battery technology market estimated to be worth an annual €250 billion by 2025.
• Europe's biggest aerospace group, Airbus, said it would cut 5,000 posts in France, 5,100 in Germany, 900 in Spain, 1,700 in the UK, and 1,300 elsewhere by mid-2021, for a core total of 14,000.
• France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States will see their economies shrink by more than 25% within a year.
• If the second wave spike scenario prevails online grocery penetration could over the next five years soar to almost 14% in the UK, 13% in France, 11% in the US, more than 8% in Italy and 4% in Germany.
• Even with a switch to 100% renewables, energy supply remains secure and Countries which still use large amounts of coal or nuclear power, like France and Poland, can still completely switch to renewable energies in the 2040s.
• GDP is expected to fall by 8.7% in the Eurozone, by 9.7% in Britain and by more than 10% in Italy, France and Spain.
• After a very difficult Q2 period - which saw domestic deal value collapse by 90% to US$ 1.1 billion compared to the year before and volume dropped 61% to 49 transactions-dealmakers will hope that the reopening of France's economy after lockdown supports a revival in domestic activity levels.
• Italy, France and Spain are forecast to exhibit the largest economic contraction with the UK expected decline by more than 10% in 2020 followed by a partial recovery next year.
• Germany and the UK might just meet their demand, but France, Italy and Spain collectively will face a deficit of almost 30,000 to 50,000 ventilators, which might be purchased through the rest of 2020.
• Germany, France and Italy are about to adopt policies that formulate stricter technical criteria that could lead to a partial ban on Huawei.

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Last updated: 16 September 2020