By the chances of the calendar and the upheavals of French politics, the period of investigation was particularly unfavorable. It was between December 5, 2024 and January 20, 2025 that the Franco-American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) and the Bain & Company consulting firm took the temperature with American companies present in France. In other words, in the aftermath of the fall of the Barnier government and before the Bayrou budget was finally voted, this phase of floating succeeding that of the parliamentary debates of the fall whose tax creativity has frightened more than one economic decision -maker. No wonder, under these conditions, to see international investors won by a certain feverishness, visible in the figures of the “Amcham-Bain” barometer, the 25th of the genre. Only 39 % of the leaders of French subsidiaries of American companies surveyed estimate “excellent” or “good” the perception of our country by their parent company. Or a dropout of 13 points compared to last year. Admittedly, this result remains much higher than 11 % of the beginnings of François Hollande’s five -year term, “the enemy of finance”. But we move away a little more than 64 % of 2021, peak in the last decade.
This deterioration worries all the more since it is coupled with an access to distrust of the tricolor perspectives. To choose a film, a restaurant as if to decide an investment, word of mouth is important. However, half of the respondents entrust that they would not recommend France to their compatriots as an implantation destination – once again, the interlude of instability during which the study was conducted is not unrelated to this bad score. The pessimism of American leaders risks being more sustainable. Almost half of them expect a deterioration in the French economy in the next two or three years.
A severe fall in American investments
The perceptible cold stroke through this survey is already reflected in the very concrete data of foreign direct investments. Business France figures came to confirm our loss of attractiveness, with 1,688 projects identified in 2024, 7 % less than in 2023. The first decline since 2020 and the health crisis. For the United States alone, the first country investing in France, the fall is particularly severe: -17 % in one year. In number of jobs too: while the American plans were in the creation of 17,000 jobs in 2023, less than 7,300 are planned on the basis of the announcements of 2024.
To restore the French coat of arms, our partners from across the Atlantic are not out of ideas. In the top 3 tracks pushed by the leaders interviewed by the AMCHAM and Bath are the administrative and regulatory simplification, the reduction of tax and social charges and … the reduction of public debt. American rating agencies are in tune. Standard & Poor’s recently put a downside to his “AA-“, by lowering his perspective to “negative”. Her sister Fitch, she will update the note of French debt on the evening of March 14. With the risk, this time, of a degradation, which would a little more tarnish the image of France.
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