The development of terminology, from the moment of its formation to the present day, constantly arouses interest among linguists who use data on the mechanisms of development of these linguistic subsystems to model and study the features of the evolution and functioning of the language as a whole. From our point of view, the analysis of economic terminology is currently especially relevant, since the market economy is one of the most rapidly changing spheres of human activity. This, in turn, requires the language to respond appropriately, primarily at the lexical level. This article is focused on the study of some aspects of the development of French economic terminology. Methods of semantic word formation are among the active and productive models of the formation of new terms in the French language. The article describes various types of semantic word formation in the economic vocabulary of the French language (functional transposition, phraseologization, semantic homonymy, terminology, reterminologization, determinologization) and changes in the structure of the meaning of a terminological unit, which leads to the appearance of a polysemy of terms. The conclusions drawn on the basis of the analysis performed can be useful both in the training of translators specializing in economic translation, and in increasing the efficiency of the use of terminology in the process of professional communication.