国际英语新闻：France sees sovereign ratings stable amid crisis fear

PARIS, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- French Budget Minister and government spokesman Francois Baroin rejected on Tuesday concerns over France's sovereign rating on the basis of the country's strong and healthy economic and financial situation.

"There is no need to worry about the sovereign rate of France, which is a safe traffic island with Germany," Baroin said in a weekly government briefing.

"We have undertaken structural reforms, pension reform. We will continue with them. So there are no question marks, no worries," he added.

The local market fears a negative placement of France's AAA sovereign rate by the rating agency Standard&Poor's amid mounting concerns about possible spread-out of Irish financial crisis to the rest of the European neighbors.

"We have a strong determination to meet our targets (to reduce deficit and to boost growth) which are intangible", Baroin stressed.

The European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund ( IMF) on Sunday announced an 85-billion-euro 110.54 billion U.S dollar) bailout package for Ireland. However, woes over possible contagion to other European states still remained.

The minister underlined the optimism with what French president targets, saying the state's plan "is durable, because it is sustainable, because it corresponds perfectly to the needs."

France is targeting a 1.5-percent output growth over 2010 and 2 percent in 2011 meanwhile announced to cut deficit to gross domestic product ratio to 6 percent in 2011 after an expected 7.7- percent this year.