Economy of Paris

The Paris metropolitan area is the economic hub of France, where many of the nation’s financial establishments, business headquarters, and industrial concerns are concentrated.

The city’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is significantly higher than in the rest of France, and its overall workforce is the largest among cities in the European Union.

The Île-de-France region is also the most dynamic area in terms of international trade—30 percent of the country’s imports and 20 percent of its exports are handled in the region.

~INDUSTRY~
Although the Paris metropolitan area lacks natural resources, the city’s political position attracted both heavy and light industries from the early days of industrialization in the late 18th century.

In the 19th century raw materials were shipped to Paris from north and northeast France on the newly opened Ourcq and Saint-Denis canals.

This prompted the development of chemical and mechanical industries at La Villette, where the two canals converged, and along the Seine in the southeast and southwest.

Following the development of the railway in the 19th century, machine shops were set up in the northwest as well.

In the late 20th century most heavy industries moved out of Paris, resulting in a better economic equilibrium between the capital and the provinces and a healthier environment for the city.

Only small-scale light industries have remained in inner Paris.

First and foremost among Parisian light industries are fashion-related luxury goods, for which Paris is internationally renowned.

Many high-fashion houses and jewelers are located west of the Louvre, where they started out in the 19th century as purveyors to the court at the Palace of the Tuileries.

Mass-produced clothing is manufactured predominantly in the Sentier neighborhood in central Paris.

In the late 20th century newer industries—such as electrical, mechanical, automobile, aircraft, and pharmaceutical works—developed in Paris’s suburbs.

Most of these plants are located in the valley of the Seine west and north of Paris. High-tech industries tend to be located southwest of Paris.

~SERVICES~
Service industries employ about 75 percent of the workforce of the Paris metropolitan area and generate about 75 percent of the French gross national product (GNP).

Almost one-fourth of France’s service industries are located in the Paris area.

The development of the business neighborhood of La Défense, west of Paris, and the construction of five villes nouvelles (“new towns”) around the city aided this trend in the late 20th century.

Three-quarters of jobs in the villes nouvelles are in service industries.

(a) Finance
Paris is home to the Banque de France (the French central bank) and to headquarters of all major international and national banks.

The Right Bank area north of the Louvre became the traditional financial neighborhood because of its proximity to the royal court.

In the early 17th century bankers carried out their transactions at the Place Dauphine on the western side of the Île de la Cité.

The Bourse (the Paris stock exchange) stands north of the Louvre, and the French mint lies to the south, directly across the Seine on the Left Bank.

In the 1980s the Ministry of Finance moved its headquarters from one of the wings of the Louvre to Bercy in southeastern Paris, in hopes of transforming the opposite section of the Left Bank into a new financial center.

(b) Tourism
Paris is the most visited city in the world, with more than 30 million visitors per year.

About 55 percent of visiting tourists come from foreign countries, mainly Britain, the United States, Germany, Italy, and Japan.

The Eiffel Tower and the Louvre are the most visited sites in Paris.

Paris is also a very popular site for international conferences and trade shows.

The city has several convention centers, the major one being the Palais des Congrès at Porte Maillot, northwest of the Arc de Triomphe.

(c) Transportation
Paris is the main junction of national and international railways, which terminate in six major stations (gares).

The Gare de Lyon, in the southeast, is the city’s largest station.

The Gare du Nord, in the north, is the terminal for the Eurostar, which connects central Paris and central London by way of the Channel Tunnel.

Paris is also the main hub of France’s national highway network.

Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport, northeast of the city, is the nation’s main airport and is the second largest European airport. The smaller Orly Airport is located south of the city.

Paris-le-Bourget Airport, north of the city, is Paris’s oldest airport and is now used only by private planes.

Public transportation within Paris consists of a network of bus lines and an extensive subway system known as the Métro.

A high-speed commuter train network known as RER (Réseau Exprèss Régional) links inner and outer Paris.

The hub of Paris’s subway system is at the Châtelet-les Halles station, where several Métro lines and the east-west and north-south RER lines meet.

Millions of people use the Métro or RER every day.

In an effort to ease the flow of automobile traffic within Paris, the city built several underpasses in congested areas, expressways on either side of the river, many underground parking lots, and a 35-km- (22-mi-) long ring road, the Boulevard Périphérique, along the city’s boundary.

None of these measures has had much success in reducing traffic congestion or the air pollution it brings.

The Seine was the main regional commercial route in the area until the construction of the railway in the 19th century.

The river is still used for freight by barges and the Paris port is one of the nation’s largest. The river also carries a dense traffic of pleasure boats.

A network of 33 bridges (ponts) connects the two riverbanks in inner Paris. The oldest bridge is the Pont Neuf (1607) at the western tip of Île de la Cité.

The Pont au Double and the Pont d’Arcole, on either side of the island, were built on the sites of the city’s earliest bridges.