Economists expect France to lose AAA rating

FRANCE will lose its AAA credit rating early next year regardless of last-ditch efforts by President Nicolas Sarkozy to resolve the eurozone crisis at an EU summit this week, a Reuters poll of economists showed.

The snap survey of 13 economists found that 11 of them think France will be downgraded by one of the major ratings agencies within the next three months.

The only question, following this week’s blanket eurozone credit warning by Standard & Poor’s, is whether France will be cut by one notch to AA+ or by two to a straight AA.