Sydney: Credit rating agency Standard & Poor's could change the outlook for France's triple-A rating to negative within the next 10 days, a French newspaper reported on Monday, citing several sources. Such a move would signal a possible downgrade.
"It could happen within a week, perhaps 10 days," La Tribune quoted a source as saying of a change to the outlook.
The economic and financial daily said on its website that S&P had planned to make the announcement last Friday but postponed it for unknown reasons.
The euro briefly dipped on the report, which coincided with news that credit rating agency Moody's could downgrade the subordinated debt of a swathe of euro zone banks.
The euro dipped a third of a cent but quickly recovered to $1.3315 to stand little changed from late in New York on Monday. It had risen more than 1 per cent earlier in the day on hopes that European officials would finally make some progress in tackling their debt crisis this week.
France's ratings outlook is currently stable with S&P, but there have been rumors for months of a possible downgrade by one or more of the ratings agencies.
On November 10, Standard & Poor's mistakenly announced it had cut the nation's rating, frightening investors already anxious over Europe's worsening debt crisis.
An S&P spokesman in Melbourne declined to comment on the report.
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