Credit rating agency Fitch will review its triple-A rating on France next year, its chairman said today, two days after rival Moody's stripped the country of its top-notch rating.

"France will be re-examined, as Fitch has said, in the course of 2013," Marc Ladreit de Lacharriere told France Inter radio.

French-owned Fitch is the only ratings agency to retain a triple-A rating on the euro zone's second largest economy. Moody's cut followed a downgrade by Standard & Poor's in January.

Moody's downgraded France's rating to Aa1 with a negative outlook, citing a sustained loss of competitiveness and a failure to tackle structural problems which was eroding growth potential.

Moody's also voiced concerns over France's fiscal situation and the risk of knock-on effects from the euro zone crisis.

Reuters