France: Companies’ odd inability to maintain their cost competitiveness

France has for a long time suffered from insufficient cost competitiveness given its level of product sophistication, has lost market shares and has deindustrialised. Despite these problems, companies have not restored their cost competitiveness, neither by using wage restraint nor by moving up the value chain. This problem has worsened in the recent period, when wages have accelerated without companies reacting by improving their efficiency, which confirms companies’ inability to maintain their competitiveness.