An accidental downgrade France’s credit worthiness from ‘AAA+’ to just ‘AAA’ was the result of technical error, ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has claimed.

Yesterday morning, some subscribers to the company’s Global Credit Portal market intelligence were sent an automated message containing a link, the title of which indicated the accidental downgrade. Users that followed the link saw the country’s rating unchanged.

French finance minister Francois Baroin described the accidental downgrade as  "a rather shocking rumor of information that has no foundation". "We will not allow any negative message to pass," he said.  

Standard & Poor’s apologised for the incident, saying it was "not related to any surveillance activity". "We are investigating the cause of the error," the company said in a statement.