GDP growth averaged 2% between 1994 and 1998, with 4% recorded in 2000 [6]. Like other continental economies, France's real GDP growth has been relatively weak. The unemployment rate is relatively high, at nearly 7.5% in February 2008 according to the International Labour Organization (ILO) statistics [2].
A rising trade deficit has had a malaise in the French economy since the global economic downturn in 2000. However, France's income inequality (measured by the Gini coefficient) has remained low compared to other economies where it has increased considerably. Moreover, France's poverty rate remains one of the lowest in the world[citation needed], at 6% (compared to 15% in the United Kingdom and 12% in the United States)[citation needed]. However, it should be noted that definitions of poverty are conducted at a national level, and that such comparisons are not always accurate. France's income inequality (measured by the Gini coefficient) has remained low compared to other economies where it has increased considerably (most notably in the United Kingdom and the United States). About 10% of the households control 46% of the total patrimony (€8 000 billions), in comparison to the US where 10% of the population controls 71% of the total patrimony and where even the top 1% control 38% of the total patrimony. [3]. Since 1991, due to the big rise of the level of the minimum wages (SMIC), the proportion of people employed at the minimum wages has increased from 8,1% of the total number of employees to 15,1% in 2006 [4]. According to the INSEE, 27% of full-time employees in both private and public sectors earned less than 1,3 times the SMIC [4]. In 2002, the INSEE counted 37,8% employees (part-time and full-time, CDD (Contrat à durée déterminée) and interim missions) ea ...