Page 22 - Economic report 2020

with milder-than-usual temperatures in winter, helped the French economy to remain resilient
in the last months of 2022. Note that, as well as the production of coke and products distilled
from oil, which was affected by the strikes in October, production in the manufacturing branches
shrank only moderately, despite a significant fall in energy consumption by businesses in the
sector. Households also showed positive consumption behaviour thanks to the good labour
market dynamics, the measures taken to sustain purchasing power and the savings accumulated
during the pandemic.

Domestic demand explains GDP Regarding the contribution from the various
growth, while foreign demand components to the variation in French GDP in
made a negative contribution. 2022, the expansion of domestic demand was
the main explanatory factor, with a contribution
of 2.3 percentage points (pp), added to which
is an also positive contribution from inventories of 0.7 pp. For its part, foreign demand deducted
0.6 points from GDP growth. All the components of domestic demand have made a positive
contribution and recorded a positive rate of a similar magnitude. So, private consumption – which
represents 52% of GDP – increased 2.1%, and public consumption – which is 24% of GDP – 2.5%.
Investment also increased, by 2.2%, after the strong recovery seen in the previous year (+10.3%).
In contrast, foreign demand had a negative influence on GDP, unlike the previous year, due to
stronger growth in imports of goods and services (+8.6%) than exports (+7.1%). The increase in
energy imports, due to the temporary stoppage of some nuclear reactors, partly explains this
trend. The deterioration in the trade balance helped to widen the current account balance deficit,
from -0.4% of GDP in 2021 to -2.2% of GDP in 2022, according to the OECD.

The services sector leads growth
20 GDP GROWTH IN FRANCE AND THE
EUROZONE - Interannual variation rates, as % Chart 2.1 in activity, while industry and
construction shrink.

In relation to supply, services were the sector
that contributed most to the positive trend
in the economy in 2022, while industry and
construction saw slight contractions (-1.5%
in industry and -0.3% in construction), due to
rising input prices and supply problems. Within
External environment of the Andorran economy | II. French economy
services, the trend was uneven. The subsectors
that saw the most significant increases were
France Eurozone precisely those that suffered most from
f: European Commission forecasts (May 2023). restrictions during the pandemic, such as
Source: Eurostat. cultural and recreational activities (+21.6% in
2022), and commerce, transport and hotels
The unemployment rate continues and catering (+4.4% in 2022). There was also
to decline and reached the lowest strong growth in the sector of technology and

historical value since 2008. communications (+6.2%) and professional and
scientific activities (+4.8%).

In 2022, the unemployment rate continued to decline, to reach 7.2% in the fourth quarter, i.e.
0.3 points below the level of one year before and the lowest percentage since 2008. Although
employment and the workforce decelerated in the final part of the year, the number of employees
in December was 1.3% higher than the figure one year earlier and also 4.5% above the level at
the end of 2019 prior to the health crisis (almost 1.2 million additional jobs). For the year overall,
the unemployment rate reached 7.3% and job growth 2.4%. The fact that, during the pandemic, the