Russian and French Economies

Résumé du document

Russia is the biggest country in the world and is ranked 7th for its population with 143 million of inhabitants. The country is today one of the 10th most important economy in the world. In fact, Russia is situated at the 14th world rank concerning its total GDP for 2005 with approximately 763 000 million $, and at the 10th world rank concerning its PPP GDP for 2005 with 1 560 000 million $. After the crisis caused by the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia's economy slowly began its recovery, until the financial crisis broke this positive trend in 1998. Russia revived from the financial crisis quite quickly with industry-led growth aided by the depreciated rouble. Then, since the beginning of 1999 the country's economy has experienced a positive trend, which naturally has reflected to its GDP. In fact, the performance of the Russian economy since 1998 has been impressive. Between 1998 and 2006, Russian GDP expanded by an estimated 57.6%, while real incomes of the population grew by 65%.
France's surface is 25 times smaller than Russia and the country is almost 2.5 times less populated as Russia. According to its GDP for 2005, France is ranked 6th (with 2 110 000 million $) and 7th in the world concerning its PPP GDP (1 830 000 million $). The chart below represents the growth of the GDP in France, in red in volume and in green in value. We can observe than the evolution is negative since 1979.

Extraits

[...] Today, Russia is one of the main world producers of cereal and potatoes. As in Russia, services in France constitute the most important part of the GDP, then industry and a the 3rd position agriculture. The French industry activity ranked the country at the 3rd position in Europe, behind Germany and Great Britain and 5th in the world. Eight successful sectors dominate the economy : car industry, materials transformation, building and civil engineering, telecommunications and information and communication technologies, aircraft and space industry, chemical industry, food industry, fashion and luxury industry (France is the 1st exporter of perfumes and cosmetics in the world). [...]

[...] As we have seen, the economy in Russia is mainly based on its natural resources. First world producer of gas with reserves estimated at of the resources of the planet, Russia is also the second producer of petroleum behind Saudi Arabia. Except hydrocarbons, the Russian territory conceals numerous raw materials such the nickel, brown coal, the copper, the gold, diamonds placing systematically the Russian giant in the first ten world producers member states of the EU are dependent from Russia for of their gas requirements and of their needs in oil. [...]

[...] Russian and French Economies 1. Compare the Russian economy to the economy of your home country Russia is the biggest country in the world and is ranked 7th for its population with 143 million of inhabitants. The country is today one of the 10th most important economy in the world. In fact, Russia is situated at the 14th world rank concerning its total GDP for 2005 with approximately million and at the 10th world rank concerning its PPP GDP for 2005 with million After the crisis caused by the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia's economy slowly began its recovery, until the financial crisis broke this positive trend in 1998. [...]

[...] It allows the country to have efficient and fast connections inside the country and with the countries abroad concerning passengers and fret transport. It is an important trade advantage in comparison to other countries. Russian infrastructures In opposition to France, Russia suffers from a bad infrastructures network, which leads the country to difficulties concerning national and internationals trade. Transport infrastructure in Russia The share of transport sector in the Russian economy as a whole is rather high : it accounted in 2000-2002 for about of the GDP of the country. [...]

[...] Role of the state in the economy In Russia the state has always played an important role in the economy, mainly during the soviet period but still today. Although its role has declined in recent years as a result of privatisations, the French state still plays an important role in the economy. This is true not only for the provision of services such as healthcare and education, but also in economic sectors such as energy (where the gas and electricity incumbents, Electricite de France (EDF) and Gaz de France are still 100%-owned by the state), telecommunications (the leading operator, France Telecom, is still majority-owned by the state) and transport (the railways are run as a state monopoly). [...]