While Germany grew by only 14% in the ten years from 1995 to 2005, ranking as Europe’s “vice-laggard” next to Italy, France grew by 23.6%, which was nearly the old EU countries’ average of 24.3%. In 2001, France’s gross national income per capita overtook that of Germany, and is now 4% higher.
法国微弱的增长令人吃惊。直到最近，法国经济还是表现良好，超出许多欧盟国家。德国经济从1995年到2005年只增长14％，成为意大利之后的欧洲“第二落后者”。法国经济则增长23.6％，接近老欧盟国家平均水平24.3％。在2001年，法国的人均国民收入毛值超越德国，现在则超过4％。但是最近的增长数字目前看起来扭转了这一趋势。