Francois Hollande’s defeat of Nicolas Sarkozy for the French presidency over the weekend doesn’t change the sovereign’s credit rating status, Fitch Ratings said Monday.
While the election of the Socialist party candidate as president of the French republic does not have implications for France’s ‘AAA’ rating, Fitch does say that his electoral victory “marks an important change in the leadership of France and Europe”.
But it doesn’t change is the set of challenges facing the country: strengthening fiscal credibility; boosting France’s medium-term growth potential; and dealing with the eurozone crisis, Fitch says.
Fitch affirmed France’s sovereign rating, but cut the rating outlook to negative in December last year. It says that outlook is unlikely to be resolved until 2013, absent any material shocks.