Fitch maintained its AA rating for France, outlook stable – Europe1

Fitch Ratings confirmed on Friday that the long-term rating AA sovereign debt of France, still with a stable outlook. The rating agency said in a news release that the confirmation of the note and his perspective reflects both the health and the diverse character of the French economy, its relative stability macro-financial soundness of its institutions, but also the high level of the ratio of public debt to GDP as the budget deficit. It is anticipated that public debt will peak at 98% of the gross domestic product in 2018. “The high level of debt limits the ability of France to face fiscal shocks or economic and it is the main weakness of france’s sovereign credit rating”, continues the press release.

The hypothesis of The Pen increases. Fitch also notes an increase in the risk policy in the approach of the presidential election, explaining that if the hypothesis of a victory of Marine Le Pen is not the one that she favours, its probability has increased and “is not negligible”. Fitch had downgraded the last time the note of France in December of 2014 from AA+ to AA, with a stable outlook, taking the view that the weak economy put at risk the deficit reduction targets. France is rated AA2 with a stable outlook by Moody’s and AA-with a stable outlook by Standard & Poor’s, which raised its outlook in October.