France was the third-largest car market in the EU in 2013, after Germany and the UK and ahead of Italy. The Economist Intelligence Unit expects it to hold this position over the forecast period. The country is also the EU's third-largest vehicle producer, behind Germany and Spain, although output has been felling.
France registered real GDP growth of just 0.4% in 2013. The economy stagnated in the first half of 2014 and has foiled to develop any momentum in the third quarter, leading us to revise downward our forecasts for real GDP growth to an estimated 0.3% in 2014 (previously 0.5%) and to an average of 1.3% during 2015-18 (previously 1.7%).
Unemployment (national measure) reached 9.9% in 2013. We expect it to dip to an estimated 9.7% in 2014 then fell gradually to 8.3% by 2018. This high joblessness, coupled with a continuing squeeze on real disposable incomes from high taxes, will weigh on consumer confidence and the recovery of new-car sales. We forecast that car registrations will rise by an annual average of just 1.6% in 2015-18.

Automotive report 2

Overview 2

Passenger cars 3

Commercial and other vehicles 5

Production 6

Fuel sources 8

Industry publishing schedule 11

中国科学技术信息研究所