French debt: after Moody’s, the Fitch agency’s turn to deliver its verdict this Friday

After Moody's, it will be Fitch's turn on Friday evening to update its rating on French debt. Last spring, the rating agency downgraded the French sovereign debt rating from AA to AA -, on the grounds that "political impasse and social movements (sometimes violent) constitute a risk for Macron's reform program and could create pressure for more expansionary fiscal policy or a reversal of previous reforms.

Failing to present a muscular savings program, the 2024 finance bill, currently being discussed in Parliament, will have been able to reassure analysts on the fact that, despite pressure from the street, the executive has maintained the principle of its pension reform. While, in their latest publication, Standard

After years of polite indifference, agency decisions are now eagerly awaited. The financial environment has indeed changed profoundly under the impact of the return of inflation and the rise in interest rates. The yield on French ten-year securities has thus stabilized since the start of the month at around 3.5%, the highest level since the 2008 financial crisis.

This surge, shared by the entire sovereign bond market, threatens to cause an explosion in debt charges everywhere, a particularly sensitive challenge for France, one of the most indebted countries in Europe, and which plans to raise the record amount of 285 billion euros in 2024.