On Monday, May 19, the annual Choose France summit, presided over by Emmanuel Macron and aimed at attracting foreign investment, is expected once again to make big announcements about France's economic appeal. However, those would not overshadow the country's disappointing performance in this area, which has been deteriorating continuously since the peak recorded in 2021. According to EY's annual barometer published on Thursday, May 15, foreign investments in France in 2024 were at their lowest since 2017 (except for the start of the Covid year, in 2020), with 1,025 projects recorded. This represents a decline of 14% compared to 2023 and nearly 20% compared to 2022 and 2021.

More concerning, in 2024, only 29,000 jobs were created by these investments, a decrease of 27% year-on-year and 35% compared to 2021. Admittedly, 2021 was a prosperous year, on par with 2018 – President Emmanuel Macron's first term election had then sparked some enthusiasm among international decision-makers.

This severe downturn is comparable to that observed in two other major European countries, Germany and the United Kingdom. The former has been in economic stagnation for almost three years, while the latter struggles to recover from the Brexit shock. Nevertheless, France remains the leading European country in terms of foreign investments, followed by the United Kingdom (853, -13% from 2023) and Germany (608, -17%). On Thursday, the Elysée described this new first place as "excellent news," emphasizing that "it wasn't obvious a few years ago that France would become the leader in terms of attractiveness in Europe."

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