Ratings agency Fitch said yesterday it does not plan to downgrade France’s top triple-A credit rating in 2012 unless the country suffers major economic shocks.

“Fitch maintains its position from December. In the absence of important shocks that could be linked to a strong worsening of the situation in the eurozone, Fitch does not foresee modifying its negative outlook (on the ratings) before 2013,” a spokeswoman said.

Fitch on December 16 affirmed France’s triple-A rating but revised its long-term outlook to “negative” from “stable” due to the “intensification of the eurozone crisis.

“The fact that Fitch does not plan to downgrade France’s triple-A this year is good news. This means that, for the agency, the government is taking the country’s debt problem seriously and is proposing measures that could eventually be effective,” said Dov Adjed, a trader with Aurel BGC.

The French stock exchange welcomed the news, with the benchmark CAC 40 index up 2.04 per cent at 1019 GMT to 3,191.46 points.

Ratings agencies have warned that France is exposed to the sovereign debt crisis gripping southern Europe and have threatened to downgrade its hitherto perfect rating.

Agencies Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s have warned they could lower France’s rating soon, with S&P saying it could even downgrade the country by two notches.

The French government is struggling to convince financial markets and ratings agencies that it should keep its top credit rating and has imposed two deficit-cutting packages aimed at saving a total of €72 billion since August.

It has said it needs to save €100 billion to balance its budget by 2016 but President Nicolas Sarkozy, facing a tough re-election battle in April, has vowed no new austerity measures.