International companies choose France because of its strategic position at the heart of Europe, the largest market in the world with 500 million consumers, and because of its membership of the euro zone, which offers the advantages of a single currency in 13 different countries.

 

With 65 million inhabitants, France is the second-largest consumer market in Europe after Germany and the fifth-largest economy in the world, with a GDP of US $2,490 billion in 2009. 80 million tourists visited the country in 2008.

 

While this makes France the leading tourist destination in the world, it was also the second-leading recipient of foreign direct investment in 2008, according to UNCTAD, receiving US $117.5 billion in foreign investment flows, second only the United States (US $316 billion).

 

France is therefore the leading destination for foreign investment in Europe, with a market share of 23.3% (18.7% in 2007). In 2008, the IFA recorded 641 new job-creating foreign investment projects, an improvement on 2007. The number of jobs created or maintained by these new investments was approximately 32,000.

 

 

23,000 foreign companies currently have a base in France, employing over 2.8 million people, double the figure only 10 years ago.

 

Over 40% of the equity of companies listed on the CAC 40, the French stock exchange benchmark index, was held by foreign investors as of the end of 2008. In April 2007, Euronext (the pan-European stock exchange including the Paris stock market) merged with the New York Stock Exchange to create NYSE Euronext, the leading financial marketplace group in the world.