Surge in exports lifts French GDP

The French economy grew by an above forecast 0.6 per cent in the first three months of 2008, powered by a surge in exports, proving the resilience so far of the eurozone's second largest economy in the face of a global slowdown.

France's rate of growth in the first quarter was twice the 0.3 per cent recorded for the last three months of 2007 and well above economists' consensus forecasts of 0.4 per cent, according to official figures published on Thursday.

Insee, the statistical agency, also increased its figure for gross domestic product growth last year from 1.9 per cent to 2.1 per cent, following 2.4 per cent in 2006.

Note that in France's case, there is a fallback position: growth was made possible by Sarkozy's early reforms (but of course the effort must be sustained and amplified). That's been Sarkozy and Fillon's loud argument all of today in the French media.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

Yet another simple rule: bad economic news from the US or the UK are "one-offs" or "cyclical"; but the same applies to good news from Europe. Conversely, good news from the Anglo economies are spontaneously seen as signs of intrinsic dynamism or resilience, while bad news from Europe are just a normal reflection of their decline or rigidity.

And that is on top of Europe starting any comparison with the major handicap of not cheating as much with the inflation rate.
That UK/US should have any period below Europe in such a rigged game should be damning for their system...

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi

This may be anecdotal, but I can say that now is a very good time to be looking for a job in my corner (non-English speaking) of the EU, where I'll be moving back in two months.

Can't say the same about where I reside now (US).

Suspect that's not cyclical, either. It's structural, and we're seeing the structures laid bare as we watch the economic news each day.

The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet. Winston Churchill

It's not a continent, it's a sick bay. Lemme outta here!

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

Except for the title, which I had to rewrite, the English text of this multilingual contribution was auto-generated by Google using someone's tribext Firefox extension.

A language is a dialect with an army and navy.