{"text":[[{"start":7.48,"text":"Moody’s has refrained from downgrading France’s credit rating, handing a surprise reprieve to the country as it struggles with soaring bond yields, political gridlock and nationwide street protests."}],[{"start":18.96,"text":"The rating agency said on Friday that it was maintaining its rating of Aa3 with a negative outlook."}],[{"start":25.08,"text":"Despite slower growth and a higher deficit since its last ratings decision, Moody’s opted not to downgrade because it “assumed that a deficit-reducing budget for 2027 will be adopted, while financing costs and social tensions will abate somewhat in the next few months”."}],[{"start":41.22,"text":"However, it warned that conditions were worse than what it had expected only months ago. “Slower growth and a higher deficit have pushed France’s debt burden somewhat higher than previously expected,” it wrote. “Bond yields have risen more rapidly than we expected, while widespread social protests have erupted which could constrain fiscal consolidation efforts.”"}],[{"start":62.68,"text":"Investors have grown increasingly worried about France’s debt pile, which has reached nearly 120 per cent of GDP, the third-highest level in the Eurozone after Greece and Italy. Yields on France’s 10-year sovereign bonds hit 5 per cent this week for the first time since 2002, sending spreads with Germany even wider to around 1.7 percentage points, their widest since 2011."}],[{"start":87.12,"text":"“This announcement defies the pessimistic predictions of many ‘experts’,” French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said on X. “This signal shows our lenders that there is a way forward. It is up to us to pursue it to give France a budget by the end of the year that is in line with the 5% deficit target.”"}],[{"start":104.76,"text":"President Emmanuel Macron’s minority government, led by Lecornu, faces a battle in parliament to pass its proposed 2027 budget, which includes €43bn in cuts and tax rises in order to rein in the deficit to 5 per cent of GDP. A united opposition that has dismissed the spending plan as too harsh could topple the bill."}],[{"start":124.76,"text":"Already under pressure from markets, the government has little margin to spend to appease opposition MPs or protesters who are demanding more money for public services and to ease high fuel costs."}],[{"start":133.44,"text":"Last year, Lecornu suspended an unpopular reform to raise the retirement age to 64 in order to gain the support he needed in parliament to pass the budget. The government has since abandoned its deficit target of 5 per cent for 2026 earlier this year; it is now expected to land at 5.4 per cent of GDP."}],[{"start":155.16,"text":"Moody’s is projecting that France will achieve a deficit of only 5.2 per cent of GDP next year. Weaker growth than government forecasts would “weigh on revenues, while implementing the full size of the planned real spending cuts will be politically challenging”, it said."}],[{"start":175.24,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1792971957_2980.mp3"}