200 creations over one year to end of June

In arriving at the head of the Ministry of finance, Thierry Breton has published "indicators of progress of the French economy" to "restore confidence to the French in the economic policy". Six months later, the record is mixed.

Employment

The unemployment rate may continue its recession (it has reached the level of 9.9 in July), it does not reflect the pace of the creations of jobs employees, which remains poor ( 0 in the second quarter). The Insee estimates as well as the bulk of new jobs this year contracts in the non-market sector (99.000 positions), via social cohesion and employment emergency plans. A total of 128.000 creations of positions, the market sector would contribute to height of 30,000, against 40,000 in 2004. With a growth of the labour force very moderate ( 46,000 persons), the unemployment rate end the year at 9.8 of the active population, against 10.2 end of April.

Purchasing power

Unemployment and job creation weakness continue to weigh on the wage received by households. According to the latest Insee, disposable income forecast gross household should grow in the same proportion as last year ( 3.2), with an acceleration of the taxes paid by households ( 4.1) and a deceleration of ancillary revenues (benefits social and income of the property). Activity revenues should increase 3 following an increase of 2.9 in 2004. The prices progressing at a pace slightly lower that in 2004, the growth of the purchasing power to accelerate therefore slightly, at 1.9.

Trolley type and inflation

To soothe the disputes about the "real" rising prices, Thierry Breton has created a new flag, the truck type, tracing weekly purchases of several types of households. If these consumption baskets display prices in slight decline, they however have the default of do not include the price of fuel, today in the heart of the controversy on the purchasing power of households. End of August, inflation remains moderate, with an increase of 1.8 over a year, but the only petroleum products increased by 17.6.

Public debt

In June, the Minister of finance had criticized a France who lives "within its means", with a public debt of 17,000 euros by French. The reduction of public deficit to 3 this year, as promises by the Government, compared to 3.6 last year, will not be enough to halt the progression of the debt. It broke last year Cape Town of EUR 1,000, should pass 1.017 billion in 2004 to 1.167 billion euros this year.

Innovation

The preferred area of Thierry Breton has various fortunes. Households adopt the new technologies: Broadband-equipped persons increased from 3.6 million in 2003 to 7.9 million at end June 2005. In contrast, the number of start-ups in the technologically innovative sectors is stalled, with 11.200 creations over one year to end of June. And the number of employees in these areas decreased strongly, 1,562 million at end June 2005 against 1,633 end 2002. Finally, Bercy lack of information: the evolution of the number of researchers has not been updated since 2002, while the share of research expenditure and development in the GDP in 2004 has not yet been published. It was declining in 2003 to 2.19 of the GDP, 2.26 in 2002.