Paris (Reuters) – The morale of American investors present in France deteriorated significantly in 2024, as well as their perception of the attractiveness of France as an investment destination, showed an investigation published on Tuesday.

Only 39% of American business leaders in France estimate that the country’s perception by their parent company is positive compared to other investment destinations, according to the 25th edition of the annual barometer of the US Chamber of Commerce in France and the Bain & Company consulting firm (AMCHAM-BAIN), a drop of 13 points over a year and a lower since 2016.

Worse, the indicator reflecting the rate of France’s recommendation as an investment destination continues its downward trend initiated in 2022 and spring at -44% against -22% in 2023. It is necessary to go back to 2016 to find a lower score, at -56%.

Among the respondents to the survey, 45% anticipate a negative evolution of the economic context in their sector of activity in the next two to three years and only 19% a positive development, the lowest positive rate and the highest negative rate in 10 years.

“The results of the 2025 barometer are marked by a certain dropout linked to political instability, economic pessimism and the maintenance of a certain number of structural brakes,” summed up Tuesday before journalists Marc-André Kamel, vice-president of AMCHAM France and Senior Partner and Director at Bain & Company.

“At the same time, we could see that the base of attractiveness is still there apart from these elements of social climate, political instability and economic context,” he added, stressing that the conditions for collecting barometer data were able to play on perceptions.

The barometer was built from answers received between December 2024 and January 20, 2025 of 151 American companies representing 100 billion euros in turnover in France, that is to say during the constitution of the government of François Bayrou in France and before the inauguration of Donald Trump as 47th President of the United States.

This largely explains why political stability arrives as the most important factor for investment decisions, faced with the qualification of the workforce and the economic context, with 70% of respondents saying that they are worried or even very worried about the government’s budgetary strategy.

If France still enjoys several advantages such as its geographic location and the quality of its infrastructure, the AMCHAM calls for structural reforms in particular to guarantee greater predictability of public fiscal policies and simplify administrative procedures.

But confidence does not reign: 75% of respondents say they are not confident in the government’s ability to implement by the next presidential election, the three reforms already announced and the most popular to increase the attractiveness of France, namely the bill to simplify economic life, the alleviation of employer contributions on wages or the gradual suppression (CVAE).

(Written by Bertrand de Meyer, edited by Blandine Hénault)

Copyright © 2025 Thomson Reuters