Publication: Daily Mail Published Date: 1/14/2012
France was stripped of its coveted AAA credit rating last night in a crushing humiliation for President Nicolas Sarkozy.
The downgrade of Europe's second largest economy - along with eight other Eurozone countries - came just a month after a bitter war of words broke out between Paris and London over the relative health of the French and British economies.
The row followed Prime Minister David Cameron’s historic decision to veto a European treaty to deal with the crisis affecting the euro.
Senior French politicians and the country’s top central banker insisted it should be Britain, not France, that should be stripped of the gold-plated AAA rating.
But last night, ratings agency Standard & Poor’s delivered its verdict – and it made dismal reading for Mr Sarkozy ahead of the French presidential election this spring.