France sometimes seems to evolve in parallel realities.
During last week’s AI summit, Emmanuel Macron proudly announced €109 billion in private investments set to fund the opening of giant data centres in the coming years.
“There is no need to drill. It's just plug, baby, plug. Electricity is available, you can plug, it's ready,” hesaid, clearly pleased to echo Trump's 'drill baby drill' chant.
The trouble with the metaphor is that France's economy has been unplugged for some time and looks destined to remain so for the foreseeable future.
Manufacturing output, for example, saw a 1.9% year-on-year decline in the fourth quarter of 2024, according to figurespublished by the country's statistics institute INSEE.
Worse still, the level of industrial production in December was 8% lower than in January 2020, before the pandemic.
While the downturn comes asno surprise, especially for France's metallurgical, automotive and chemical sectors, the figures - and job losses - speak for themselves.
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