This is exchanges of Goldman Sachs where we discuss developments currently shaping markets industries in the global economy.

I'm Jake Seward, global head of corporate communications here at the firm.

Today I'm delighted to be joined by Pierre Udrie, who is the head of our Paris office.

We'll talk to Pierre about the business landscape

and deal environment in France in 2021

and a little bit more than that too.

Thanks so much for joining us, Pierre.

Thanks for having me, Jake.

Really delighted to be here.

Big picture, how's the French economy been recovering from COVID?

Would have been the bright spots and would have been the areas that are a little more challenging?

Okay, so the French economy is likely to close out, we call it 9% decline in GDP.

Our forecasts are about 8.5%. The consensus is at 9.2. The one of the France is around 9%. So I think there's a broad consensus around that number.

We've been trending in the last month of the year in December at a 7% run rate decline.

And obviously as you would expect because we're in a sort of partial lockdown at this point,

continued strong drag from travel, culture, and the hospitality sectors which are pretty strong in the French economy and have been the hardest hit.

In terms of the bright spots, I would just highlight number one, we've seen a sharp improvement

versus the first lockdown where the trend was really down 30% so obviously minus 7 feels a bit more acceptable.

Number two I think the response has been developed by the French authorities has been quite remarkable, notably

130 billion of state guaranteed loans which have been channeled to over 650,000 companies

since the crisis began.

So that's been very effective.

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