France rating downgrade 'a technical error'

The credit rating for France has not been downgraded by Standard & Poor’s, the company said today, clarifying what it says was an accidental transmission of a message to some subscribers that it had downgraded the nation’s credit.

In a statement, S&P says a technical error caused the automatic dissemination of a message to some subscribers of its Global Credit Portal “suggesting that France’s credit rating had been changed”.

S&P says that is not the case and France’s rating remains at AAA, the highest investment-grade rating, with a “Stable” outlook.

The company says it is investigating the error.