Which eurozone countries downgraded

Germany was the only country to emerge totally unscathed with its triple-A rating and a stable outlook. Related Coverage. See more stories.

European stocks, which had been up for the day, turned negative, but reaction to the widely anticipated news was moderate. Safe-haven German year bond futures rose to a new record high while the risk premium that investors charge on French, Spanish, Italian and Belgian debt widened. Moody's said in a statement that the main drivers of the ratings changes included "the euro area's prospects for institutional reform of its fiscal and economic framework" and "the resources that will be made available to deal with the crisis.

Investors may be heartened by the fact that Moody's didn't downgrade the eurozone's bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Fund. Instead, the ratings agency affirmed its provisional Aaa long-term debt rating with a stable outlook. Europe's Debt Crisis.

Print Comment. Portugal and Cyprus saw further downgrades today, pushing their debt to junk-territory. Before markets opened in the U. The ratings firm had placed the debts of 15 nations on CreditWatch in early December, adding them to a list that already included Cyprus.

The ratings agency formally announced its decision at p. Whispers of the downgrades today sent the euro on a race lower, where it touched a month low against the dollar. The currency is currently down more than 1. We have lowered the long-term ratings on Cyprus, Italy, Portugal, and Spain by two notches; lowered the long-term ratings on Austria, France, Malta, Slovakia, and Slovenia, by one notch; and affirmed the long-term ratings on Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.

All ratings have been removed from CreditWatch, where they were placed with negative implications on Dec. See list below for full details on the affected ratings. The outlooks on the long-term ratings on Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, and Spain are negative, indicating that we believe that there is at least a one-in-three chance that the rating will be lowered in or The outlook horizon for issuers with investment-grade ratings is up to two years, and for issuers with speculative-grade ratings up to one year.

The outlooks on the long-term ratings on Germany and Slovakia are stable. Today's rating actions are primarily driven by our assessment that the policy initiatives that have been taken by European policymakers in recent weeks may be insufficient to fully address ongoing systemic stresses in the eurozone.

In our view, these stresses include: 1 tightening credit conditions, 2 an increase in risk premiums for a widening group of eurozone issuers, 3 a simultaneous attempt to delever by governments and households, 4 weakening economic growth prospects, and 5 an open and prolonged dispute among European policymakers over the proper approach to address challenges.

Germany considers Greece to be the main faultline in the euro crisis and is urgently seeking a resolution to talks over a deal, but has insisted Brussels holds out for a private sector deal.

Unprecedented action by the European Central Bank in recent weeks had reassured many investors that policymakers were getting on top of the crisis. Graham Neilson, chief investment strategist at Cairn Capital, warned: "This is just the start. There will be more to come, and not just in Europe — there is simply still too much debt and not enough growth in developed economies.

France has already shown its anger at the prospect of a downgrade. Central Bank chief Christian Noyer raised eyebrows in London before Christmas when he said Britain "has more deficits, as much debt, more inflation, less growth than us".