Germany's population decline has already begun, despite the short-term stabilisation provided by immigration. In 2013, Germany's total population of 81.3 million had already fallen by 500,000 since 2003. In very recent years, it has been stabilised by a strong wave of immigration, but whether that pattern will persist remains uncertain, as shown by alternating periods of positive and negative net... Lire la suite
VAT is France's highest-yielding tax. According to the national accounts, it generated €144bn in 2013. However, VAT as a share of GDP of total taxation is relatively small by comparison with the 27-member European Union (EU-27), whereas the ratio of total taxation to GDP in France is high (44.7% in 2013).Furthermore, the VAT-to-GDP ratio has decreased since the 1970s in France.The comparatively mo... Lire la suite
Income and wealth inequalities in the U.S. have risen since the late 1970s, with only a temporary interruption by the 2007-2009 recession. At the same time, after being cut in half from the late 1950s to the beginning of the 2000s, the absolute poverty rate has increased significantly, and has now returned to the level of the mid-1960s. Finally, in sharp contrast to the traditional view of the Ame... Lire la suite
British productivity fell sharply during the 2008 crisis and has barely recovered since then. At the end of 2014, it was still two percentage points lower than in early 2008, and 15 points below the level it would have reached if it had followed its pre-crisis trend growth rate. The UK's persistently low productivity is noteworthy, both from a historical perspective and in comparison to the patter... Lire la suite
Expenditure for patients suffering from a recognized long-standing diseases(Affection de Longue Durée - ALD) currently represents a major share (€90bn in 2011) of total reimbursed healthcare expenditures. The ALD system itself, which supplements standard reimbursements by granting patients copayment exempt status for all medical procedures and services related to LSDs, costs the national health in... Lire la suite
Disregarding quarterly fluctuations, GDP growth steadily gained momentum in 2014 in all the advanced economies except Japan. Nevertheless, substantial divergences persist between the main economic areas.The recovery is forecast to spread to all the advanced economies in 2015, and growth in the euro area should accelerate in 2016. The sharp decline in oil prices is a boost to the global economy. Ho... Lire la suite
Labour mobility contributes to the smooth functioning of the internal market in the European Union by ensuring a better match between labour supply and demand, which is necessary to reduce unemployment and increase productivity. Furthermore, in a monetary union such as the euro area, labour mobility could act as an automatic stabiliser against asymmetric shocks, since monetary policy responds prim... Lire la suite
Within Europe, France has an especially strong fertility rate with 2.01 children per woman against an average of 1.58 for the European Union as a whole in 2012. Women are also extremely active in the labour market, with a labour force participation rate of 83% of 25 to 54 year-olds in 2012 compared to the EU average of 79%. Although other factors are involved, these figures are often held up as vi... Lire la suite
France and Germany post similar actual average annual working times of approximately 1,650 hours. This similarity, however, conceals a shorter average working time for full-time employees in France (about 200 fewer hours a year) and a higher proportion of part-time wage-earning jobs in Germany (26%) than in France (18%). In the past decade, both France and Germany recorded strong increases in the... Lire la suite
Spain's export performance has improved sharply since 2009-in other words, its exports of goods and services have been more robust than expected relative to the development of the foreign demand.This strong performance is due to several factors including the sharp improvement in cost competitiveness, partly made possible by the wage moderation but also by the strong recovery in productivity that a... Lire la suite