10 March 2016, France | Corporate Finance | News
An annual survey on the commercial real estate market in France, summarising the major trends of 2015.
Main trends from the report:
- The French economy has entered a moderaterecovery phase in 2015 with 1.1% growth in GDP:better than the initial forecast of 1%, despite aslowdown in Q4 to only 0.2% due in large part tothe November Paris terrorist attacks. This growthrate, however, has still been below that of France’smain European competitors such as the UK (2.2%),Germany (1.7%) and Spain (3.2%).
- Domestic consumption has regained a modest degreeof vitality (+1.6% in 2015), with declining oil pricescontinuing to boost purchasing power.
- Business investment has also improved, helped bylower oil prices and the depreciation of the Euro as aresult both of less stringent monetary policies on thepart of the ECB, as well as by the gradual eff ects ofpolicies such as the Tax Credit for Competitivenessand Employment (CICE) that are continuing to benefi tthe French economy. These policies have allowed fora signifi cant recovery in corporate margins in 2015,which stood at 31.1% in 2015, 1.6 points more thanin 2014.