Fitch Ratings could strip France of its triple-A credit status next year if the country fails to meet its targets on debt reduction and its economy performs worse than forecast, one of the agency's top sovereign experts warned on Wednesday, Nov 29, according to Reuters.

Fitch is the only of the three major rating firms to still rate France triple-A after Moody's cut it one notch earlier this month and Standard & Poor's did so in January.

Worries over the finances of the eurozone's second largest economy have bubbled under the surface through three years of debt crisis, but markets have so far given it the benefit of the doubt, focusing instead on Italy and Spain.