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One in six French people lives in poverty

Over 11 million people in France - or more than one in six of the population, live in poverty and social exclusion, a report published on Friday claims. Poverty has increased sharply since 2004 and even some people in work earn so little that they are classed as poor.

Published: 30 March 2012 11:37 CEST

The report published by the observatory on poverty (Onpes) says France has resisted 2008-2009 crisis relatively well, but that the French are paying for the consequences.

In 2009 and 2010, 11.2 million earnt very low wages, or suffered from severe material deprivation or lack of work.

The report says 13.5 percent of the population earn less that 60 percent of the average wage in France. That means 8.2 million people live on less than €954. Considering that a studio apartment in Paris can easily cost €700 a month, that’s not very much.

Onpes also says that extreme poverty, people living with less than 40 percent of the average wage is also on the increase. Close to 2 million people survive on less than €640 a month. The report also says the increase of this very poor segment of population is slow but steady, and is not adressed by France’s social services.

The worst hit groups – single mothers, young adults and older women – are struggling more than other age or social groups. Onpes remarks that many poor people in France do work but that having a job no longer means workers are above the poverty threshold.

How is Denmark's economy handling inflation and rate rises?

The council, led by four university economics professors commonly referred to as “the wise men” or vismænd in Denmark, gave a much rosier picture of Denmark’s economy in its spring report, published on Tuesday, than it did in its autumn report last year.

“We, like many others, are surprised by how employment continues to rise despite inflation and higher interest rates,” the chair or ‘chief wise man’, Carl-Johan Dalgaard, said in a press release.

“A significant drop in energy prices and a very positive development in exports mean that things have gone better than feared, and as it looks now, the slowdown will therefore be more subdued than we estimated in the autumn.”

In the English summary of its report, the council noted that in the autumn, market expectations were that energy prices would remain at a high level, with “a real concern for energy supply shortages in the winter of 2022/23”.

That the slowdown has been more subdued, it continued was largely due to a significant drop in energy prices compared to the levels seen in late summer 2022, and compared to the market expectations for 2023.

The council now expects Denmark’s GDP growth to slow to 1 percent in 2023 rather than for the economy to shrink by 0.2 percent, as it predicted in the autumn.

In 2024, it expects the growth rate to remain the same as in 2003, with another year of 1 percent GDP growth. In its autumn report it expected weaker growth of 0.6 percent in 2024.

What is the outlook for employment?

In the autumn, the expert group estimated that employment in Denmark would decrease by 100,000 people towards the end of the 2023, with employment in 2024 about 1 percent below the estimated structural level.

Now, instead, it expects employment will fall by just 50,000 people by 2025.

What does the expert group’s outlook mean for interest rates and government spending?

Denmark’s finance minister Nikolai Wammen came in for some gentle criticism, with the experts judging that “the 2023 Finance Act, which was adopted in May, should have been tighter”. The current government’s fiscal policy, it concludes “has not contributed to countering domestic inflationary pressures”.

The experts expect inflation to stay above 2 percent in 2023 and 2024 and not to fall below 2 percent until 2025.

If the government decides to follow the council’s advice, the budget in 2024 will have to be at least as tight, if not tighter than that of 2023.

“Fiscal policy in 2024 should not contribute to increasing demand pressure, rather the opposite,” they write.

The council also questioned the evidence justifying abolishing the Great Prayer Day holiday, which Denmark’s government has claimed will permanently increase the labour supply by 8,500 full time workers.

“The council assumes that the abolition of Great Prayer Day will have a short-term positive effect on the labour supply, while there is no evidence of a long-term effect.”

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