Debt Crisis : Countdown For The French Triple-A Forex News Now
ForexNewsNow.com (New York) - According to a growing number of economists, the rating of French sovereign debt could be the next to experience a downgrade. When might that happen, you ask?
By September, or next fall at the latest, some predict.
Despite the major rating agencies having confirmed France’s AAA rating in the wake of the US downgrade, two indicators are lending support to the fear of an immediate sanction.
John Chambers, a senior analyst at Standard & Poor’s, acknowledged that “some of France’s fiscal indicators are now actually slightly worse than those of the United States, especially when it comes to debt.”
For its part, the Fitch rating agency warned several weeks ago that “a deviation from its goal [a deficit reduced to 3% of GDP by 2013] would put pressure on France’s AAA rating.”
But after 2011′s second quarter results, the French GDP – like Portugal’s – has not increased and the forecast for a reduction of the deficit will probably not hold. While the government anticipated a deficit of 4.6% of GDP in 2011, Natixis now predicts 5.4%.


