Most regions below average EU GDP

MOST of France’s former regions have a GDP per person well below that of the European Union average, a study has found.

While the country as a whole is 7% above the average GDP per person, figures from the group Afep (a group of more than 100 private companies) show this masks huge discrepancies.

The study was carried out before the regional government was reorganised.

In the Ile-de-France the figure is 75% higher than the European average, while only two other former regions Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur and the Rhône-Alpes had levels of GDP per person that were above average.

Five other former regions in France had levels that were 20% lower than the EU average: Limousin, Lorraine, Franche-Comté, Languedoc-Roussillon and Picardie.

The study says that while Paris has typically driven around 30% of the economy, the financial crisis has exacerbated the gap between the capital and other areas of the country.

Of the 570,000 jobs lost between 2008 and 2015, 40% of them were in two of France new regions: Alsace-Champagne-Ardenne-Lorraine and Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie.

While the unemployment figures have stabilised nationally, the study finds that jobs are still being lost in these regions and in Normandy, Centre-Val de Loire, Bourgogne and Franche-Comté.

The level of employment in the north-east is still 10% lower than it was before the financial crisis.
Photo:Flickr/Jean Desjardins