In 2016, world activity progressed at an almost identical rate to that in previous years: +3.2% after +3.3% in 2015 and +3.5% in 2014. It slowed down in the advanced economies, but picked up somewhat in the emerging countries after a sharp slowdown last year (Figure 1): Chinese economic growth levelled out after declining for five years, while activity contracted less sharply than in 2015 in Brazil and Russia, major commodity exporters.

Growth slowed in the advanced economies (+1.7% after +2.0% in 2015), essentially due to the United States (+1.6% after +2.6%) where corporate demand decelerated significantly, especially in the mining sector. UK growth remained buoyant, although slightly less so than the year before (+1.8% after +2.2%). Growth stabilised in Japan (+1.0% in 2016 after +1.1% in 2015 and +0.2% in 2014). In the Eurozone, the recovery was confirmed: +1.6% after +1.5%. (The complete version of this article is not available in English)

In 2016, the growth rate in France hardly increased at all: +1.2% in volume after +1.1% in 2015. This was nevertheless the strongest growth since 2011 (Figure 1). Domestic demand excluding changes in inventories accelerated sharply (contributing +2.1 points to GDP growth in 2016 against +1.3 points in 2015), driven by households: their consumption gained momentum (+2.3% after +1.4%) in the wake of their purchasing power and their investment rebounded after falling back for several years (+2.4% after -2.1%). On the government demand side, general government consumption picked up slightly (+1.3% after +1.1%) while the decline in the volume of government investment virtually ceased (-0.1% after -3.0%). Finally, investment by non-financial enterprises accelerated a little more (+3.6% after +3.1%).