Spain suffers cut from Standard and Poor's
Credit rating agency Standard and Poor's has today reduced the credit rating on Spanish national debt from AAA to AA. This is a major blow for the Spanish economy and the Spanish government and comes amid signs that the Greece debacle is now affecting other European economies. Yesterday we saw Portugal suffer the indignity of a credit rating downgrade and experts believe more downgrades are on the way.
The ongoing problems within the Eurozone have impacted upon the euro itself which has come under significant selling pressure over the last few days. Despite the fact that only a few days ago it looked highly unlikely that any European country would default on its national debt, the chances of this happening have increased dramatically over the last 48 hours. There is also concern that the global economy could be impacted by the debt problems within Europe and we could move back towards another worldwide economic downturn.
Even though the UK stock market was fairly steady today, compared to yesterday, we did see significant falls in France, Germany and Spain and there is growing concern amongst investors. Despite the fact that the German authorities appear to have been dragging their heels regarding a solution for the Greek debt problem, it was the German government who today called for a "speeding up" of negotiations between the Greek government, the IMF and the European Union.
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