Germany’s Rating Affirmed by S&P as France Looses AAA Status
January 14, 2012, 9:31 AM ESTBy Vivek Shankar
Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Germany, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands had their ratings affirmed by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services as France lost its AAA rating.
France was cut to AA+ and the rating has a negative outlook, S&P said in a statement. Germany and Slovakia are the only two of the 16 Eurozone countries in the S&P review with a stable outlook, the rest have a negative outlook.
European leaders’ attempts to address economic woes hasn’t “produced a breakthrough of sufficient size and scope to fully address the Eurozone’s financial problems,” S&P said. The region continues to face tightening credit conditions among other problems, S&P said.
Cyprus, Italy, Portugal, and Spain were cut by two notches S&P said. The long-term ratings on Austria, Malta, Slovakia, and Slovenia were cut one notch. Portugal and Cyprus are now below investment grade, or in junk status.
Link to Statement:{NSN LXRAZB3PWT1C <GO>}
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Vivek Shankar at vshankar3@bloomberg.net
