Happy in the first six months of 2001: besides a decrease for the NICT and the weaknesses of exports, almost all the indicators are good on the French Riviera.
The economic balance sheet of the first six months of 2001, set on last Monday September 10th by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Bank of France were a bit out of the situation. And it is even more the case today since the tragic attacks on the World Trade Center have set the prospects of the world economy in the dark again. The point is not figures presented in this balance sheet are not the reflection of reality. But, they were the reality at that time.
The economic situation has changed. In the whole high tech industry, the economic situation has particularly changed since the beginning of summer. And what was the reality three or four months ago is not always today’s reality. This situation could be the case soon in tourism. The remembrance of the Gulf war is still in the mind of tourism professionals of the French Riviera.
Almost all the indicators are good. In this balance sheet, almost all the indicators (exports excluded) are good. The turnover of companies increases by 5%, employment by 3%. Each activity sector has a positive turnover: 2.5% for industry, 21% for building works which are just recovering after several bad years; 10% for business and only 1% for services. The reason for these great results: consumption has been good and a strong tourist stream have sustained activity in the department.
Economic areas: Carros-Plaine du Var at the top. There is no weakness sign either in the analysis of “economic areas”. The most dynamic one, over the first six months 2001 is Carros-Plaine du Var, with a turnover increasing by 11% and employment by 7.5%. Sophia Antipolis, which statistics are joined to those of Antibes, is credited with a turnover increase by 5% and a + 3.5% for employment; Nice has seen the turnover increased by 6% and employment by 1%.
Sole negative point: the turnover of NICT has decreased by 6%. the sole negative data: the NICT pole (New Information and Communication Technologies), a pole which had great results in year 2000 and which turnover decreases by 6%, from 13.4 billion francs for the first six months 2000 to 12.7 billion francs for the first six months 2001. This decrease is explained by the fall of exports which results from the American slowdown: 5.4 billion francs for 2000 and 4.2 billion francs for 2001.
13.000 jobs created in one year. The most satisfactory figure is the decrease of unemployment: -12.4%. “Over one year, we have gained 13.000 jobs”, Francis Pérugini, the president of the CCI, notes. The unemployment rate has gone down to 10% with 37.722 jobs seekers while it was around 14%. Even if the Riviera is not as good as the national level (8.5%), it’s still better than the PACA region.
Positive and negative elements of the balance sheet. For the positive part on the Riviera over the first six months there are the well oriented home consumption, the good evolution of employment, a sustained tourist activity, the cruse and yachting activity which is exploding this year. For the negative part, there are the decrease of the NICT activity, the slowdown of exports, the stagnation of the airport traffic (hardly + 0.4% with a decrease by 7.6% of the national traffic and an increase by 9.6% of the international traffic), the recruitment difficulties of companies (particularly for seasonal workers in tourism). And we mention also that traffic conditions are getting worse in the Alpes-Maritimes with an overcrowded A8 highway. And this problem is recurrent and it will probably last for several years to come…