The rating agency Moody’s announced during the night from Friday to Saturday downgrade France’s sovereign rating by one notchthe same day of the appointment of the new Prime Minister, François Bayrou. This decision “reflects our view that the country’s public finances will be significantly weakened over the coming years”due to a “political fragmentation more likely to prevent meaningful fiscal consolidation”indicates the agency.
France’s sovereign rating now stands at Aa3 with stable outlook. At the end of October already, Moody’s had attached the previous Aa2 rating to a negative outlookand had issued a note on the same day of the censorship of the previous Prime Minister Michel Barnier, December 4, to indicate that this event was “negative” for the French note.
The Minister of Economy and Finance, Antoine Armand, immediately “taken note” of this decision. “The Moody’s agency announced the change in France’s rating (…) highlighting recent parliamentary developments and the resulting current uncertainty regarding the improvement of our public finances. I take note of this “writes the minister in a press release. “The appointment (of) François Bayrou and the reaffirmed desire to reduce the deficit provide an explicit response”he adds. In his brief handover speech on Friday afternoon, François Bayrou vigorously insisted on the need to reduce the public deficit and the country’s debtrecalling having driven in the past “presidential campaigns on this theme”.
Swiss
