{"id":61719,"date":"2025-09-13T13:37:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T13:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/61719\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T13:37:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T13:37:08","slug":"france-credit-downgrade-fitch-cuts-rating-to-a-from-aa-in-a-record-low-political-turmoil-clouds-debt-outlook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/61719\/","title":{"rendered":"France credit downgrade: Fitch cuts rating to A+ from AA- in a record low; political turmoil clouds debt outlook"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/untitled-design-6.jpg\" alt=\"France credit downgrade: Fitch cuts rating to A+ from AA- in a record low; political turmoil clouds debt outlook\" title=\"File photo: French President Emmanuel Macron (Picture credit: AP)\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>File photo: French President Emmanuel Macron (Picture credit: AP) France\u2019s sovereign credit rating has been cut by Fitch to A+ from AA-, with the agency warning that public debt will keep rising until at least 2027 unless urgent corrective steps are taken. The move marks the lowest rating France has received on record from a major credit agency, though Fitch maintained a stable outlook for future moves, as per news agency AFP.The downgrade comes at a politically sensitive moment, just days after Fran\u00e7ois Bayrou stepped down as prime minister following a failed parliamentary confidence vote over his austerity-driven budget. Bayrou reacted sharply on X, saying France was \u201ca country whose elites lead it to reject the truth (and) is condemned to pay the price.\u201d President <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/emmanuel-macron\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Emmanuel Macron<\/a> has since appointed S\u00e9bastien Lecornu to form a new government, though he faces a divided parliament with little room to push through deep spending cuts.Fitch said the confidence vote defeat showed how \u201cfragmentation and polarisation\u201d in domestic politics weakened France\u2019s ability to deliver fiscal consolidation. The agency added it was unlikely the deficit would be reduced to 3% of GDP by 2029, contrary to earlier government ambitions.France recorded a budget deficit of 5.8% of GDP in 2024 and debt at 113% of GDP, far above eurozone thresholds of 3% and 60%. Fitch now projects debt to climb to 121% by 2027, with no \u201cclear horizon\u201d for stabilisation.Outgoing economy minister Eric Lombard acknowledged the downgrade but insisted on the \u201csolidity\u201d of the French economy. Rising borrowing costs are already evident: French 10-year bond yields reached 3.47% this week, close to Italy\u2019s levels, though Italy carries a much lower rating. Analysts cited by news agency Reuters said the downgrade had largely been priced in, but warned it could spur forced selling of French bonds if other agencies follow suit. Rival rater S&amp;P Global is due to update its assessment in November.For Prime Minister Lecornu, Fitch\u2019s move heightens the challenge of presenting a new budget by early October. To secure support, he may need to soften plans with concessions such as higher taxes on the wealthy or easing pension reforms, though such compromises risk alienating Macron\u2019s centrist base and conservative allies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"File photo: French President Emmanuel Macron (Picture credit: AP) France\u2019s sovereign credit rating has been cut by Fitch&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[43851,43848,79,43852,179,18,6586,43853,43849,43847,19,17,43850,31977,39413],"class_list":{"0":"post-61719","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-a-credit-rating","9":"tag-budget-deficit","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-economic-forecast-france","12":"tag-economy","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-emmanuel-macron","15":"tag-eu-economic-policy","16":"tag-fitch-ratings","17":"tag-france-credit-rating-downgrade","18":"tag-ie","19":"tag-ireland","20":"tag-political-instability-france","21":"tag-public-debt","22":"tag-sebastien-lecornu"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}