Credit rating agency Fitch has downgraded France’s credit rating, citing the country’s social and political impasse and large budget deficits.
Fitch downgrades France’s credit score from AA to AA-, with outlook stable. That is the same rating as Belgium at Fitch. Our country does have a negative outlook.
France’s projected budget deficits for this year and next are no longer in line with the average for other countries with an AA credit score, according to the credit rating agency.
The credit rating agency also cites the political deadlock and sometimes violent protests in France, where unions have been demonstrating for months against the planned pension increase. That poses a risk to President Emmanuel Macron’s reform plans, Fitch said.
Fitch is the first of the three major rating agencies to downgrade France’s credit rating since the social unrest over pensions.
In response to the credit rating downgrade, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has assured that France will continue with planned structural reforms and government debt reduction.
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