Everyday language is filled with figurative expressions. Thus, it is only natural that figurativeness should also be present in specialised genres like economics. Departing from this premise, the objective of this paper is to analyse the presence of metaphor and idioms in French business press. In the first part of the paper, Negro examines several linguistic metaphors like ECONOMIC PHENOMENA ARE PEOPLE (e.g. Économie en déroute), ECONOMY IS A PATIENT (e.g. On n’a pas pris soins de l’euro), ECONOMY IS A VEHICLE (La Bourse de New York a accéléré ses gains), ECONOMIC PROBLEMS ARE WEATHER CONDITIONS (e.g. L’euro n’est pas prêt de sortir des zones de turbulence), etc., and concludes that, in the texts under scrutiny, ECONOMY IS A PATIENT is the most recurrent conceptual metaphor. In the second part of the present proposal, different examples involving the use of idioms are studied. Their communicative purpose is shown through their occurrence in headlines and through idiomatic variation.