A fresh downgrade of France's credit rating by S&P Global is "a wake-up call" for the country to pass a 2026 budget, Economy Minister Roland Lescure said Saturday.
"This is an additional cloud to a weather report that is already quite grey" in terms of France's economic outlook, he told Franceinfo radio.
France, with one of the largest debt piles among European Union countries, is in the midst of a political impasse over the budget, which has so far failed to pass through a divided parliament.
President Emmanuel Macron's new Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu has backtracked on a deeply contested pension reform that would have raised the age of retirement.
Lecornu's move was a bid to gain support from lawmakers and this week helped him survive two no-confidence votes.
S&P Global on Friday became the third ratings agency in less than a year to push down its evaluation of France's credit status, lowering it from "AA-" to "A+."
It follows Fitch Ratings doing the same less than a week earlier, and Moody's in December last year lowering it from "Aa2" to "Aa3."
S&P said its decision came as it judged that "uncertainty on France's government finances remains elevated."
With a draft budget presented to parliament this week, Lescure said the government was aiming to reduce its public deficit from 5.4% of gross domestic product (GDP) this year to 4.7% by the end of next year.
According to EU rules, member countries' deficits should aim to be a maximum of 3% of GDP, though with some leeway, for instance regarding defense spending.
They also state that overall public debt should be no more than 60% of GDP. France's is nearly twice that, making it the third-highest in the bloc after Greece and Italy.
