Moody’s maintains French debt rating

PARIS, Jan 25 (AFP) :  Moody's held its French credit rating at Aa1 Friday but maintained a negative outlook, days after President Francois Hollande announced a batch of business-friendly measures to fire up growth.

The US agency affirmed the bond rating one notch below the top AAA rating.

Moody's voiced scepticism about the reforms Hollande announced earlier this month, a "responsibility pact" which includes lowering labour taxes in exchanges for fresh hiring by companies.

"The implementation and efficacy of these policy initiatives are complicated by the persistence of long-standing rigidities in labour, goods and services markets as well as the social and political tensions the government is facing," the agency said in a statement.

"I can only welcome" this announcement, French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici told reporters at the World Economic Forum in in Davos, Switzerland.

The latest rating of French credit by Standard and Poor's, the leading rating agency, is two notches below the top level.