English to French translation seems to have been impacted little by the global financial crisis, with the volume of English to French translation carried out by Technical Translations remaining more or less static in terms of volume throughout the economic crisis.
By comparison to France, the economies of Greece and Portugal would appear to have been impacted badly with notable decline in translations from English into Portuguese and Greek in addition to a reduction in orders for translation into English from both Greek and Portuguese technology firms.
While Technical Translations cannot claim to be able to speak for the European economy as a whole it is likely that these trends are reflected in the translation business as a whole, and its fair to say that translation to and from certain languages is a good barometer of the relative economic strength of countries in which that language is spoken. Clearly if the rate of English to French translation is any measure, the French economy has emerged as one of the survivors of the last few years.
As the European economy recovers we hope to see the emergence of new technology businesses across Europe. Translating innovation into new consumer goods takes time of course and there will be a natural time lag while these technologies turn into products for sale, and translation of product documentation tends to be the last piece of the jigsaw before a product goes to market.
