Summary

Moody’s downgraded France’s credit rating from “Aa2” to “Aa3,” citing “political fragmentation” and limited prospects for addressing the country’s rising fiscal deficits.

The downgrade follows similar moves by S&P and Fitch and comes as Emmanuel Macron appointed Francois Bayrou as France’s fourth prime minister this year.

Bayrou replaces Michel Barnier, who was ousted after a no-confidence vote over his proposal to cut €60 billion in government spending.

Bayrou now faces the challenge of navigating a divided legislature to draft a 2025 budget and address the country’s economic instability.

  • @lurklurk
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    -74 days ago

    France has had two choices for a long time; continue overspending or balance the budget. They keep picking overspending.

    Like Macron or not, but at least he’s trying to balance the budget. If he ends up failing, they’ll have to try again later, from a worse starting point, or over time descend into economic collapse

    There’s no free lunch

    • Enoril
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      254 days ago

      He is one of the root cause of the overspending as he has given a lot of taxes cut (that would have make the balance better) to his very rich friends.

      So don’t tell me he’s trying to balance the budget. He did tell that publicly but of course did the contrary. Look at the balance when he took power several years ago, look now. He was fully in command all this time.

      I paid a lot of taxes not to give gifts to already rich people but for public services. He only cut public services.

      But as he loose control from the population, he want to make us fear of an economic crisis to make old people vote for his party again.

      • @lurklurk
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        3 days ago

        Covid happened. It hit most countries like that. Now he’s trying to balance things again, against intense opposition

        The root cause is not recent. The french have been overspending for decades. Look at the debt to GDP ratio over time.

    • @[email protected]
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      174 days ago

      He is trying to balance the budget by implementing austerity and cutting taxes for the rich, ultimately costing the country more money. Neoliberal moment.

      • @lurklurk
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        -33 days ago

        I don’t think that’s an accurate representation.