MOSCOW, November 20 (RIA Novosti) – Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded France’s government bond rating by one notch to ‘Aaa1’ from ‘Aaa’, the international ratings agency reported.
The outlook remains negative, Moody’s said on Monday.
“Today’s rating action follows Moody’s decision on 23 July 2012 to change to negative the outlooks on the Aaa ratings of Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands,” the agency said.
“At the time, Moody’s also announced that it would assess France’s Aaa sovereign rating and its outlook, which had been changed to negative on 13 February 2012, to determine the impact of the elevated risk of a Greek exit from the euro area, the growing likelihood of collective support for other euro area sovereigns and stalled economic growth,” it said, adding that Monday’s rating action concluded that assessment.
Another ratings agency, Standard Poor’s, lowered France’s unsolicited long-term sovereign credit rating to ‘AA+’ from ‘AAA’ in January.