This page explains how France-EcoScan organises public sources, long series and comparisons over time to make the French economy easier to read.
France-EcoScan favours recognised public sources to build a readable macroeconomic picture: statistical series, national aggregates, market data and European indicators. The data are presented as consolidated benchmarks, with attention paid to orders of magnitude, trend breaks and comparability.
The tool puts indicators into perspective over long periods, in particular since 1981 where the historical depth allows. Reading by presidential term serves to place trajectories in their political and economic context, without mechanically attributing a change to a single decision.
The debt counter distinguishes three numbers. The official one is the latest quarterly debt published by INSEE, with its period. The estimate is a France-EcoScan calculation of the debt at the end of the current quarter, anchored on publications by INSEE and the Agence France Trésor (the French debt management office). The pace is the projection slope between two recalibrations: it only changes on a new validated publication, its adjustment date is displayed, and everything projected carries the label “PROJECTION”. None of this is a real-time measurement or a certain forecast.
An economic indicator is never read on its own. Calculation methods, statistical revisions, calendar effects and external shocks can change the analysis. France-EcoScan helps to compare and contextualise, but does not replace statistical, legal, financial or budgetary expertise.