The French finance minister announced tonight that Standard & Poor's had stripped the nation of its top-notch credit rating, again throwing Europe's ability to fight off its debt crisis into doubt.
Speaking on France-2 television, Finance Minister Francois Baroin confirmed that France had been lowered by one notch. That would mean a rating of AA+, the same rating the United States has had since S&P downgraded it last August.
Baroin said France had received a change to its rating "like most of the eurozone" referring to the 17 European nations that use the euro currency, but there was no confirmation from S&P that any other nation had been downgraded. S&P had warned 15 European nations in December that they were at risk for a downgrade.
A credit downgrade would escalate the threats to Europe's fragile financial system and raise the costs at which the affected countries - some of which are already struggling with heavy debt loads and low growth - borrow money.
Borrowing costs for the French government rose earlier today, when rumours of a looming downgrade began swirling through financial markets. The yield on France's 10-year government bond rose to 3.1% from 3% earlier in the day.
That is still less than the 3.36% rate on the same bond last week and far below the 6.6% that Italy has to pay to borrow money from bond investors for 10 years.
Germany, considered the strongest economy in Europe, pays a yield of just 1.76%. The United States 10-year Treasury note paid 1.85% today, down 0.08 percentage points - a sign that investors were seeking safety in US debt.
Financial markets did not appear to be thrown into turmoil by the French finance minister's announcement. Baroin said the downgrade was "bad news" but not "a catastrophe".
"You have to be relative, you have keep your cool," he said. "It's necessary not to frighten the French people about it."
Earlier today, the euro hit its lowest level in more than a year and borrowing costs for European nations rose. Stock markets in Europe and the US fell.
Fears of a downgrade brought a sour end to a mildly encouraging week for Europe's heavily indebted nations and were a stark reminder that the 17-country eurozone's debt crisis is far from over.
Earlier today, Italy had capped a strong week for government debt auctions, seeing its borrowing costs drop for a second day in a row as it successfully raised as much as 4.75 billion euro (£3.73 billion).
Spain and Italy completed successful bond auctions on Thursday, and European Central Bank president Mario Draghi noted "tentative signs of stabilisation" in the region's economy.
The downgrades could drive up the cost of European government debt as investors demand more compensation for holding bonds deemed to be riskier than they had been. Higher borrowing costs would put more financial pressure on countries already contending with heavy debt burdens.
In Greece, negotiations today to get investors to take a voluntary cut on their Greek bond holdings appeared close to collapse, raising the spectre of a potentially disastrous default by the country that kicked off Europe's financial troubles more than two years ago.
The deal, known as the Private Sector Involvement, aims to reduce Greece's debt by 100 billion euro by swapping private creditors' bonds with new ones with a lower value, and is a key part of an (3108.5 billion) international bailout. Without it, the country could suffer a catastrophic bankruptcy that would send shock waves through the global economy.
Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos met this week with representatives of the Institute of International Finance, a global body representing the private bondholders. Finance ministry officials from the eurozone also met in Brussels on Thursday night.
"Unfortunately, despite the efforts of Greece's leadership, the proposal put forward ... which involves an unprecedented 50% nominal reduction of Greece's sovereign bonds in private investors' hands and up to 100 billion euro of debt forgiveness - has not produced a constructive consolidated response by all parties, consistent with a voluntary exchange of Greek sovereign debt," the IIF said in a statement.
"Under the circumstances, discussions with Greece and the official sector are paused for reflection on the benefits of a voluntary approach," it said.
Today's Italian auction saw investors demanding an interest rate of 4.83% to lend Italy money for three years, down from an average rate of 5.62% in the previous auction and far lower than the 7.89% in November, when the country's financial crisis was most acute.
While Italy paid a slightly higher rate for bonds maturing in 2018, which were also sold in today's auction, demand was between 1.2% and 2.2% higher than what was on offer.
The results were not as strong as those of bond auctions the previous day, when Italy raised 12 billion euro and Spain saw huge demand for its own debt sale.
"Overall, it underscores that while all the auctions in the eurozone have been battle victories, the war is a long way from being resolved (either way)," said Marc Ostwald, strategist at Monument Securities. "These euro area auctions will continue to present themselves as market risk events for a very protracted period."