French Credit Downgrade -S&P

France is the most senior Eurozone country to be downgraded Friday by the Ratings Agency Standard & Poor, all of them casualties of the current financial crisis. On the back of this move, coming after European trading time and just after US markets have closed, the Euro has declined to a 16 month low and Asian equity markets have also dropped significantly, seeing this move as fuelling the crisis rather than assisting Eurozone officials to deal with it.

Equity markets here in Europe are seen to be going lower at opening, reflecting the S&P wave of credit cuts, not entirely unexpected but not coming at a great time either.

This comes shortly after the war of words between France and the UK as to which country is in the worst financial shape and for now at least one agency believes it is France, closer to the centre of the financial storm than the UK, who is generally seen to be taking it's austerity medicine on time, painful though it may be to the populace.

Other countries on the S&P "hit" list were; Spain, Portugal,Italy Austria,Cyprus, Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia.