2023-06-02 23:45:25
The rating agency Standard & Poor’s has maintained France’s rating at “AA”. EMMANUEL DUNAND
While the executive feared a downgrading of its rating, like what Fitch decided at the end of April, the other American agency is more optimistic than its counterpart on the trajectory of French public finances.
A sigh of relief at the top of the state. Against all expectations, the rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) maintained, on Friday evening, France’s rating at “AAmeaning that the country has a strong capacity to repay its debt. An optimistic vision which therefore takes the opposite view of the decision taken by Fitch at the end of April, which had lowered it by one notch, from “AA” to “AA-“. And the surprise is all the greater for the French government that S&P had maintained the hexagonal rating in December, without ruling out downgrading it due to the slowdown in its economy, the absence of major structural reforms and the deterioration of finances. public.
Despite a sometimes tense and eruptive social context linked to the difficult adoption of the pension reform, the government’s efforts have finally borne fruit. In its latest forecasts presented, the executive is betting on a debt of 108% of gross domestic product (GDP) and a deficit of 2.7% by the end of the five-year term. Its concern to display a strong economic policy and a financial seriousness probably convinced the rating agency. The choice “is mainly due to the revision of the government’s fiscal consolidation strategy”, commented Standard & Poor’s, which thus promotes the programmed end of energy aid and pension reform.
In an interview with the JDD, published on Friday, the Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire hailed a “positive signals». «Our public finance strategy is clear. She is ambitious. And she’s believable“, Continued the boss of Bercy. To achieve its objectives by 2027, Bruno Le Maire wishes to pursue the “reforms to achieve full employment“, reduce “public spending», and end the “’whatever it takes’, (to) all exceptional checks (and to) the energy shield.”
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A few days ago, the minister had confirmed that the exchanges between the government and the officials of Standard & Poor’s were going well. Way for the executive to convince them of the benefits of France’s economic policy to reduce its debt. “I presented our arguments, I think they are convincing: we make reforms, we manage to get them through, boasted the boss of Bercy on France Inter. We have solid economic results.Going to the front, the Prime Minister herself had had “very close discussions”, in his words on Radio J, with the agency “about everything (France) to master (ses) public finances”. A move that proved him right.
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