France merits its top credit rating, the head of a leading credit rating agency said in remarks published yesterday.

“Our analysts consider that at the moment France merits its AAA rating, as indicated in the outlook ‘stable’ on this rating,” the president of Standard & Poor’s, Deven Sharma, told the business newspaper Les Echos in an interview conducted several days ago.

His remarks were published the day after the government here said that its rating was sound and two days after it rejected a suggestion that France might be touched by the eurozone crisis.

But Mr Sharma did not rule out the possibility that France could one day lose this rating.

“Any rating is liable to be adjusted if conditions change,” he said, noting that the rating for Japan had been reduced in 2001 and for Spain in January 2009.

Mr Sharma said: “Our role is not to be advisers, but our analyses are often considered with attention.”