File: The Fitch Ratings logo. Nikolas Kokovlis/ NurPhoto via AFP
PARIS - The Fitch agency downgraded France's credit rating as President Emmanuel Macron struggles with political instability and disagreements on how to put the country's strained public finances in order.
The US ratings agency, one of the top global institutions gauging the financial solidity of sovereign borrowers, downgraded France on its ability to pay back debts, from "AA-" to "A+".
It also said France's debt mountain would keep rising until 2027 unless urgent action was taken.
The move comes just four days after Francois Bayrou resigned as prime minister after losing a parliamentary confidence vote over an attempt to get an austerity budget adopted. He had sought major spending cuts in the budget in a bid to cut the French deficit and debt.
Reacting to the announcement, Bayrou said on X that France was "a country whose 'elites' lead it to reject the truth (and) is condemned to pay the price".
The downgrade will further complicate the task of new Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, probably heading a minority government, of drawing up a budget for next year.
"The government's defeat in a confidence vote illustrates the increased fragmentation and polarisation of domestic politics," Fitch said in a statement.
"This instability weakens the political system's capacity to deliver substantial fiscal consolidation," it added, saying it was unlikely the fiscal deficit would be cut to three percent of GDP by 2029, as the outgoing government had wanted.
Outgoing Economy Minister Eric Lombard acknowledged the agency's move, but insisted on the "solidity" of the French economy.
A rating downgrade typically raises the risk premium investors demand of a government to buy sovereign bonds -- although some financial experts had suggested the debt market had already priced in an expected downgrade for France.
On Tuesday, the return on French 10-year government bonds, known as the yield, rose to 3.47 percent, close to that of Italy, one of the eurozone's worst performers.
Rising yields would translate into higher costs for servicing France's debt, which Bayrou warned was already at an "unbearable" level.