By Jean-Jacques Pluchart
In April 2025, the National Productivity Council (CNP) published its 5th report entitled “A Changing World – Productivity, Competitiveness and Digital Transition”, which presents the opportunities offered to the French economy by a better contribution of digital technology. The report is structured in 3 parts: the evolution of productivity, the relative competitiveness of the country and the impact of new technologies on growth.
Established in 2018, the CNP, chaired by Natacha Valla and reporting to France Strategy, is responsible for advising the government on economic policies related to productivity, assessing their effects and feeding the public debate. It shows that the ongoing transformations of the French economy are divided between short-term objectives and long-term structural imperatives.
The experts note that in France, current labor productivity per capita is 5.9% below its pre-Covid level. Two-thirds of this drop in productivity over 5 years can be explained by transitory factors: apprenticeships, job retention in sectors facing a decline in activity, effects of workforce composition (higher proportion of lower-skilled jobs, etc.). The remaining third is due to a structural weakening of productivity in Europe. This lack of dynamism can only be stemmed by new investments – particularly in digital technology – and by a transformation of the production system. Employment growth alone cannot ensure the sustainability of economic growth.
The report points to the still ambiguous role of digital technologies – notably GenAI and robotics – in the evolution of productivity. Their overall impact is perceived as insufficient in France, but there are indications that a catch-up is possible, provided that AI is more widely implemented in labor-intensive sectors and that workers are rapidly retrained.
The report reveals that around 14 million French people, or 28% of the population, are not digitally literate, which is a real handicap in a context of increasing digitization of the world’s population. The experts estimate that a 10-year plan to digitalize 4.7 million French people could generate annual gains of 1.6 billion euros, in the fields of the digital economy, employment and training, relations with public services, social inclusion and well-being. The first area is the digital economy, which includes online purchasing and the collaborative economy. Developing the online purchasing capabilities of a third of the target population, via collaborative economy platforms, could generate purchasing power gains of around €450 million a year. The second area concerns employment and training. Overall, Internet use has a positive impact on the educational success and qualification levels of the French population. This would generate annual savings of around 130 million euros. The third area is the relationship with public services, and in particular online administrative procedures. A digital inclusion plan would generate annual savings of 150 million euros.
Fortunately, the latest indicators show some improvement in European competitiveness, particularly in manufacturing. In 2023 and 2024, the reduction in France’s trade deficit was accompanied by a recovery in its export market share. Competitiveness has also benefited from a relative drop in real wage costs. However, overall, French labor costs remain higher than the eurozone average, particularly in countries such as Spain and Italy. Recent cost rises in business services and freight costs could rapidly call into question the gains observed. Non-price competitiveness remains an issue, as French intermediate, investment and consumer products are often perceived as too expensive in relation to their quality. Further increases in labor and transport costs could once again weigh on price competitiveness. France therefore has two strategic choices: to focus on innovation to improve productivity and strengthen non-price competitiveness, or to control labor costs to maintain its competitiveness on international markets.
France lags far behind the United States in terms of technological investment, and this deficit could have a lasting impact on potential growth. The Draghi report (2024), which calls for a stronger European framework to stimulate economic growth, is a good example of this.
France lags far behind the USA in terms of technological investment, and this deficit could have a lasting impact on potential growth. The Draghi Report (2024), which calls for a stronger European framework to boost competitiveness through innovation (1), underlines this urgency. In the CNP’s view, only a strategy of investment in digital technology, driven by both national industrial policies and European directives, could be one of the levers of tomorrow’s productivity, employment and economic sovereignty.
(1) The first effects of the “Draghi report” will be presented in the next blog.
