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Economy
In reply to the discussion: Weekend Economists Sit on a Wall August 23-25, 2013 [View all]Demeter
(85,373 posts)26. Room For Hope? Fourth Largest Industry In France: It’s “Never Been This Catastrophic”
http://www.testosteronepit.com/home/2013/8/5/room-for-hope-fourth-largest-industry-in-france-its-never-be.html
An awful turn of events in France, just when everyone was hailing signs of a recovery, of which evidence has been trickling in, albeit mixed at best. If you held your tongue just right, you could even see vague glimmers of hope.
New vehicle sales in July edged up for the first time since anyone could remember, by a minuscule 0.9% from the depressed levels a year ago. OK, there was an extra selling day, and sales per selling day actually dropped 3.5%, but hey, thats still a lot better than the 9.7% plunge for the first seven months.
Consumer spending, after having dropped in the first quarter, was up 0.3% in the second quarter, despite the 0.8% dive in June. Maybe in July, frazzled consumers spent a little more as their confidence crept up from the abysmal record-breaking low levels in June.
In the same vein, the Purchasing Managers Index for services and manufacturing in July was still in contraction, but it was the least worst contraction in 17 months. Companies continued to shed jobs, but at the slowest rate in 15 months. Thats great. The economy was still falling, but more slowly from already low levels to even lower levels. Time for hope.
But that hope hissed out of the hotel and restaurant sector. After a terrible summer of 2012, hotel traffic in July was even more terrible, dropping another 7% year over year. Along the coast, it was down only 10%; but in some regions in the Alps, it was down over 30%. The bad weather in the first half of July was blamed. But the weather was beautiful in the second half; thats when the economic crisis was blamed. New this year: even destinations along the Mediterranean were touched by the crisis. And now restaurants! Traffic plunged by a historic 13.2% in July. For the first seven months, traffic gave up 5%. Over the last two years, the sector lost 10% of its jobs.
An awful turn of events in France, just when everyone was hailing signs of a recovery, of which evidence has been trickling in, albeit mixed at best. If you held your tongue just right, you could even see vague glimmers of hope.
New vehicle sales in July edged up for the first time since anyone could remember, by a minuscule 0.9% from the depressed levels a year ago. OK, there was an extra selling day, and sales per selling day actually dropped 3.5%, but hey, thats still a lot better than the 9.7% plunge for the first seven months.
Consumer spending, after having dropped in the first quarter, was up 0.3% in the second quarter, despite the 0.8% dive in June. Maybe in July, frazzled consumers spent a little more as their confidence crept up from the abysmal record-breaking low levels in June.
In the same vein, the Purchasing Managers Index for services and manufacturing in July was still in contraction, but it was the least worst contraction in 17 months. Companies continued to shed jobs, but at the slowest rate in 15 months. Thats great. The economy was still falling, but more slowly from already low levels to even lower levels. Time for hope.
But that hope hissed out of the hotel and restaurant sector. After a terrible summer of 2012, hotel traffic in July was even more terrible, dropping another 7% year over year. Along the coast, it was down only 10%; but in some regions in the Alps, it was down over 30%. The bad weather in the first half of July was blamed. But the weather was beautiful in the second half; thats when the economic crisis was blamed. New this year: even destinations along the Mediterranean were touched by the crisis. And now restaurants! Traffic plunged by a historic 13.2% in July. For the first seven months, traffic gave up 5%. Over the last two years, the sector lost 10% of its jobs.
The situation has never been this catastrophic, warned Michel Morin, president of the National Association of Theme and Commercial Restaurants (SNRTC). Our enterprises are experiencing an unprecedented decrease in revenues, and the results of the past four weeks, lead us to fear the worst.
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