Credit-rating firm Standard and Poor's downgraded nine European countries Friday, saying national leaders are moving too slowly to strengthen the troubled eurozone's finances.

France lost its top-tier AAA rating, while Italy and Spain were downgraded by two notches. Germany, which has Europe's largest economy, kept its AAA rating.

Lower credit ratings may raise the cost of borrowing money for those governments.

French Finance Minister Francois Baroin called the downgrade “bad news,” but not “a catastrophe.” He said ratings agencies would not dictate French economic policies.

In Greece, where the European debt crisis began, a group of private lenders met with government officials but failed to reach an agreement to help reduce the nation's debt.