DECRYPTION – National economic assets, which include financial and non-financial assets, amounted to 18,674 billion euros at the end of 2023.
France is rich. Extraordinarily rich. Its economic assets reached the difficult to understand amount of 18,674 billion euros at the end of 2023, according to a publication by INSEE and the Banque de France. However, after prosperous years of growth (4.8% on average over the last 8 years), it is down 4.2%, largely due to the fall in property prices. At the end of 2022, it stood at 20,052 billion euros.
This annual study, which meets a European obligation, with EU Member States having an obligation to publish their accounts each year, is intended to provide an overall vision of the distribution of national wealth. It thus shows the value of the “stock” of the previous year, that is to say material and immaterial goods. And also allows us to see where French savings are heading.
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While one might spontaneously think that net French wealth – assets less liabilities, such as debts – is mainly held by companies, this is not the case. More than three quarters (78%) are owned by households, to the tune of 14.567 billion euros. Next come non-financial companies (3,297 billion, or 17.7% of national assets), then public administrations (786 billion) and finally non-financial companies (25 billion).
Strong orientation of the French in stone
Par « assets » we need to hear concrete elements. On the non-financial side, we find goods and products such as housing construction, equipment, land, stocks of raw materials, etc. The other component of the national economic heritage is to be found in financial assets: liquidity in bank accounts , shares, investment fund shares, life insurance, etc. Once the liabilities have been removed, we obtain the total assets owned by all the economic players in the country.
The value of real estate held, which constituted 91.3% of households' non-financial assets, fell under the effect of a sharp increase in the fall in the price of built land while the value of buildings continued to progress (+3.9%, after +8.8%)
Study by INSEE and the Banque de France
It is because of the prevalence of households that a slight variation in their wealth, of -0.9% in 2023, is enough to cause the overall curve to plunge. This decline, which comes after an initial slowdown in 2022, is due to the fall in property prices, a large part of which is owned by individuals (8,910 billion euros, or 60% of household assets). As the main national asset, it is natural that its decline, of 4.7% in 2023, has a strong influence on the value of overall assets.
« The value of the real estate held, which constituted 91.3 % of household non-financial assets, fell under the effect of a sharp increase in the fall in the price of built land while the value of buildings continued to increase (+ 3,9 %, after + 8,8 %) »specifies the study. In other words, construction, whose prices were increasing, was not enough to compensate for the sharp contraction in the price of buildings already constructed. This strong orientation of the French in real estate is intermediate between Germany, where households are to a lesser extent owners, and the countries of southern Europe, where they are more so.
ECB rates in question
What about household financial assets? Fueled by a sharply increasing savings rate since the Covid-19 crisis in 2020, this wealth may have increased by 8.3% in 2023, reaching 4,809 billion euros, but it could not be enough to fully counterbalance the decline in the value of real estate assets. This double real estate and financial trend is the direct result of the increase in rates practiced by the European Central Bank to counter inflation: the cost of real estate loans increased, demand then prices fell, while the remuneration of investments increased. With the savings rate increasing in 2024, this trend could be confirmed in the next study published in 2025.
Non-financial companies, for their part, saw their assets decline much more sharply (-10% in one year), still under the effect of the fall in land prices, but also due to the increase in their financial liabilities. . The same reasons causing the same effects, the assets of public administrations fell by 27.5%. The latter, however, remains higher than its 2021 level, because it had increased significantly in 2022. The assets of financial companies remain “limited”, at 25 billion, with non-financial assets of 379 billion euros being almost offset by net financial assets of 354 billion euros.
