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The large French trading groups from 1972 to 1979, by Alain Nicolas and Didier Bury. The economic and financial conditions of the growth of some 15 large French retail groups are analyzed on the basis of a sampling of the sales companies monitored from 1972 to 1979. The principal indicators observed are the business (volume sales) and store (employment and retail space) trends, the mark-ups, the earnings and the debt of the firms. It was found that the groups' average growth is faster than that of the trading sector as a whole and that they primarily operate as mass retailers. Their trading margins stayed relative stable in relation to sales in the period 1976-1979. The trend profiles and growth strategies differ quite widely according to whether the groups principally sell food or non-food products. With their expansion in France inhibited by strict regulation of new supermarket construction, the food groups have nevertheless maintained their earning capacity and have accordingly had the resources for both sectorial and geographic diversification, while staying close to the trade sector. The non-food groups, dominated by the department stores which are having specific problems, have gone through a difficult phase since 1975, from which, by dint of rationalization and management programs, they seem to be emerging.

Good results for the French economy: the trade in services: by Jean-Pierre Broclawski, Yves de Gaulle and Alain Miermont. The combination of the growth of the tertiary sector in the developed economies and the redeployment of international trade after the first oil shock has assigned increased importance to invisible transactions in the balances of payments. This article seeks to posit the French results on this score since 1970 in comparaison with the Oecd countries, while placing their trend in a medium term perspective. The first and second parts of the article bring out the remarkable performance of France which is joining the group of industrial nations having invisible surpluses, forming a stark contrast with the position of our principal trading partner. West Germany, and is becoming a leading world exporter of services after the United States. The third part analyzes the specific factors of the French turnaround, focussing on the trend of our service receipts, which offset the structural charge of private and public unilateral transfers.