Shopkeepers are facing a staggering financial toll following the widespread damage and looting during the Oct. 17 demonstrations, with preliminary estimates out of the IFRAP Foundation surpassing €1 billion.
“Initial reports from insurance companies indicate that the losses will exceed one billion euros,” reported CCI France on Tuesday. “For Paris, we’re talking hundreds of millions,” France’s network of chambers of commerce, CCI France, has stated, as cited by Le Figaro.
Damage in Paris alone already stretches into the hundreds of millions of euros.
IFRAP’s €1.1 billion estimate includes nearly €910 million in physical property damage and €190 million in lost business revenue due to forced closures and reduced activity. The financial hit is heavily concentrated on businesses (€666 million) and public property (€200 million), the latter including the fire-ravaged Limoges City Hall.
These amounts would eclipse the summer 2023 riots, which cost insurers €793 million across 16,400 claims, with the unrest spanning 11 nights and impacting 672 municipalities.
Rating agency Morningstar DBRS estimates the current damage could peak at €1.2 billion, provided the unrest subsides.
Comparing these estimates to the Yellow Vest movement, which caused retail revenue losses averaging €400 million per weekend between late 2018 and early 2019, IFRAP’s baseline estimate for the Oct. 17-18 riots projects €190 million in operating losses for just the single weekend.
Still, the damage is real. During Saturday protests, “city center businesses lose up to 80% of their revenue,” said CCI France.
In response to the crisis, CCI France President Alain Di Crescenzo is urging authorities to ban all demonstrations, including those in suburban areas, until after the holiday season. “We absolutely must revive commerce,” he stressed.
In the wake of the riots, French government bonds were unloaded by investors in a dramatic sell-off. Ratings agency Moody’s was expected to downgrade France’s credit rating last week but instead maintained its long-term sovereign credit rating at Aa3 with a negative outlook. Some say, this reprieve may not last long.
