France and Britain were vying for fifth place on the list of the world’s biggest economies on Wednesday, with France nudging ahead after a renewed slump in the pound in the wake of the Brexit vote.
The French government, on Wednesday, also pledged to make its tax regime for expatriates the most favourable in Europe in a landgrab for London banking business displaced by Britain’s decision to quit the European Union.
We want to build the financial capital of the future. In a word, now is the time to come to France.Manuel Valls, French Prime Minister
Britain’s gross domestic product stood at 1.864 trillion pounds in 2015, according to the last available figures from the International Monetary Fund.
The average exchange rate for the year in question is commonly used for comparisons between countries. But using the current exchange rate, France has pulled slightly ahead.
With the pound falling below 1.17 euros overnight for the first time since 2013, that means the size of the British economy in 2015 is now equivalent to 2.172 trillion euros–less than France’s official GDP of 2.182 trillion euros last year.
Britain’s vote to exit the EU in the Brexit Referendum has hammered financial markets, rattled businesses leading to the fall of the pound, which was trading at 1.1650 euros as of 1440 GMT.
In 2014, Britain overtook France, six years after the financial crisis caused the pound to fall and allowed France to regain a crown it had lost in 1997.
Bank of France governor, Francois Villeroy de Galhau promised French regulators would quickly examine applications from any financial institutions licensed in Britain that might seek to set up shop in France.
We are not in a war with London... but there is competition and we want to make Paris Europe’s top financial centreFrancois Villeroy de Galhau, Governor of Bank of France