Credit rating agency Standard & Poor's has confirmed earlier information and lowered the ratings of nine eurozone member countries, including France.

All euro zone states have their outlook also moved to negative, except Germany and Slovakia.

France has had its credit rating downgraded from AAA to AA+, a move that had been feared for months, but had been dismissed by President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Two of the other largest EU economies had their ratings also reduced: Italy from A to BBB+, Spain from AA- to A.

Austria also experienced, like France, a downgrade from the highest AAA rating to AA+.

The other countries with reduced ratings are Cyprus, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia and Slovakia.

EU national and European-level leaders, including Economy Commissioner Olli Rehn have dismissed the announcement as "untimely."

At the same, Standard & Poor's argued that in the past months the EU and eurozone member countries have not done enough to tackle the debt crisis.