For Pierre Moscovici, France must react to reassure the rating agencies. Paris “can no longer” show “indifference” in the face of the signals sent by the markets and “must prove its desire to stabilize the budgetary situation”, indeed estimated on Wednesday the first president of the Court of Auditors, after the deterioration of France’s note.
At the end of April, the rating agency Fitch lowered the French rating to “AA-” against “AA”, citing the strong social tensions at work around the pension reform, for the first time since 2013. The agency S&P Global, which currently gives France an AA rating with a negative outlook, is due to release its findings on June 2.
The signing of France “remains solid”
If “the French signature remains solid”, “the consequences to be expected on public policies are not negligible”, therefore judges Pierre Moscovici in an interview with the newspaper The echoes.
To show his credentials, he calls on the government to “absolutely avoid uncompensated tax cuts, whatever their nature”.
Two months ago, the Court of Auditors had already urged the executive to make the recovery of public finances degraded by successive crises “a national priority”, curbing a lack of ambition in this area.