The Fitch credit agency has taken away its triple-A rating, a veritable death knell for a bond insurer.

FORBES: Magazine Article

In February, Moody's became the first rating agency to downgrade the UK from triple-A status.

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Another agency, Fitch, confirmed France's triple-A rating on Friday evening, but revised its long-term outlook to "negative" from "stable".

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The comments from senior French figures followed a recent warning from US credit ratings agency Standard and Poor's that France could lose its triple-A credit rating over the eurozone crisis.

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The deficit is not even forecast to get below 5% of GDP until 2016-17 - which is one reason why at least one ratings agency has decided that Britain's sovereign debt is no longer triple A. The deficit was 11% of national income when he took office, more than double what it was in 1979.

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The need for that was reinforced this week by a warning from Fitch, a credit-rating agency, that Britain was the big economy most at risk of losing its prized triple-A status as a sovereign borrower.

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The agency said there is a 50% chance that they each may be bumped out of their triple-A status by at least one notch in the next 90 days.

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