Sarkozy shrugs off credit downgrade

President Nicolas Sarkozy declared bluntly that a harsh downgrade by Standard & Poor's of France's formerly top-rung debt rating "changes nothing" for the eurozone's second largest economy.

Mr Sarkozy, in a testy exchange with a journalist at a Madrid news conference yesterday, suggested that a solid investor demand for a French debt auction and a reaffirmation from rival ratings agency Moody's of France's triple-A sovereign debt had offset S&P's much-publicised downgrade.