Fitch downgrade to lowest level on record complicates new prime minister Sebastien Lecornu and President Emmanuel Macron’s efforts to control France’s finances
The Fitch agency downgraded France’s credit rating on Friday, as President Emmanuel Macron struggles with political instability and disagreements on how to put the country’s strained public finances in order.
The US rating agency, one of the top global institutions gauging the financial solidity of sovereign borrowers, downgraded France on its ability to pay back debts, from “AA-” to “A+”, the country’s lowest level on record at a major credit rating agency.
It also said France’s debt mountain would keep rising until 2027 unless urgent action was taken, attributing its cut to the lack of “a clear horizon for debt stabilisation in subsequent years”.
The move comes four days after Francois Bayrou resigned as prime minister after losing a parliamentary confidence vote over an attempt to get an austerity budget adopted. He had sought big spending cuts in the budget to cut the French deficit and debt.
