Avin A. V., Kirakosyan A. A.

Oles Honchar Dnipropetrovsk National University

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF FEATURES OF THE ECONOMIC POLICY OF FRANCE AND GERMANY

Germany is a political and economic leader in the European Union, stands out for its socially-oriented market economy, high organization of the German population and achievements in different areas of science and technology.

The basis of the economic policy of Germany is the principle of socially oriented economics, according to which the state serves as the general regulation of the market economy. The main objective of government regulation is providing fair competition at the market.

In the area of ​​macro-economic indicators, the German government seeks to achieve stable prices, a reduction in unemployment, a positive trade balance.

Germany is specialized mainly in traditional industries – engineering and automotive industry.

In 2011, Germany's foreign trade figures were record, exports totaled 1.06 trillion euros (up 11.4%), import – 0.9 trillion (up 13.2%). Thus, the trade surplus of 158 billion euros has supportedthe labor market, and service debt.

The German government has decided to save 80 billion euros by 2014 as part of the government's program to reduce costs.

This problem will be solved by reducing public expenditures, reduction of about 10 thousand jobs in federal ministries, reducing salaries to officials. German policy of austerity threatens the existence of the European Union and could lead to the collapse of the single european currency.

The main directions of economic policy in Germany in the EU are: efforts to improve the innovative capacity of the national economy, the subsequent liberalization of the business, including the reduction of administrative regulation, ensuring the compe­titiveness of the economy, promotion of cross-sectoral cooperation.

Let’s proceed by analyzing the economic policy of France. France is one of the examples of the stabilization of the economy through state intervention, which is fairly typical of the developed countries.

The government partially or fully privatized many large industrial and insurance companies, banks, losing shares in leading companies such as Air France, France Telecom, Renault, and Thales.The state maintains a significant presence in some sectors, especially in the energy, public transport, and defense industries.

Problem of economic policy in France is an old French tradition of centralization of business with the support and under the control of the state. Such model that assumes, that the leadership of the country determines who will be a "national champion", reduced the competitiveness of France in Europe and increased government regulation of the economy.

Thus German economic policy is aimed at speeding up European economic integration, the subsequent transformation of the economies of the new federal states, the gradual elimination of the economic and technological gap with the United States, the maintenance of healthy competition in the market.

France, in turn, is focusing on strengthening state regulation to catch up on the German economy, increase the competitiveness of their companies and, in the end, come to a positive trade balance.