Rating war continues

Fitch Downgrades Ratings of Five Eurozone States

International ratings agency Fitch downgraded its sovereign credit ratings of five Eurozone states - Belgium, Cyprus, Italy, Spain and Slovenia.

Ratings of Italy and Spain, two Eurozone economic heavyweights, were slashed by two notches . The countries now have the ratings of A- and A, respectively.

Ratings on Belgium, Slovenia and Cyprus were also reduced, to АА, А and ВВВ-, respectively.

The agency assigned Negative Outlook on all six countries, which indicated a 50-percent chance of further downgrade in the next two years.

The move comes after the five states  were placed on Rating Watch Negative (RWN) on December 16, 2011. They countries were removed from the list after the downgrade.

“Rising "home bias" in the allocation of capital, the divergence in monetary and credit conditions across the eurozone, and near-term economic outlook highlight the greater vulnerability to monetary as well as financing shocks faced by these sovereign governments,” the ratings agency said in a statement.

“Consequently, these sovereigns do not, in Fitch's view, accrue the full benefits of the euro's reserve currency status,” the statement reads.

S&P, Moody's and Fitch, the world's three leading credit rating agencies, are private companies headquartered in the United States. Ratings from Moody's and S&P are considered as mandatory for large debt issuers.

Germany calls for European rating agencies after S&P downgrade

Europe needs to create independent credit rating agencies and stop relying solely on leading U.S.-based agencies, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said during his visit to Greece late on Sunday in the wake of S&'P's mass European downgrade last week.

"It is time for Europe to prove capable of facing up to the credit ratings agencies," Westerwelle said.

The markets across Europe are barely given time to breathe before the rating agencies' decisions plunge them back into uncertainty, he said.

"It is very important we give the agreements and pacts (reached by EU member states) a realistic chance (to work). This is the only way we can bring trust back into the markets," Westerwelle said.

Standard & Poor's downgraded nine eurozone countries late on Friday, insisting the region's leaders were not doing enough to solve their debt crises.

S&P stripped France and Austria of their top AAA ranking to AA+, in a move likely to complicate the currency union’s efforts to endure the worsening debt crisis. Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia also suffered a one-notch downgrade, while the ratings of Italy, Spain, Portugal and Cyprus were cut by two levels.

"... 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," the agency said on its website.

Germany, by far the strongest economy in Europe and main contributor to Europe’s bailout fund for troubled economies, as well as Finland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg maintained their triple-A ratings.

A deal reached by the EU countries during the December 9 summit in Brussels, which provides for the creation of a fiscal union to deepen the integration of national budgets, "has not produced a breakthrough of sufficient size and scope to fully address the eurozone's financial problems," the agency said.

S&P, Moody's and Fitch, the world's three leading credit rating agencies, are private companies headquartered in the United States. Ratings from Moody's and S&P are considered as mandatory for large debt issuers.

European stocks traded lower on Monday in the wake of S&P's decision as investors were unnerved by the worsening prospects of the eurozone's economies and their ability to tackle their sovereign debt crisis.

As of 08:20 GMT, Britain's FTSE 100 index fell 0.38 percent to 5,615.30, Germany's DAX fell 0.52 percent to 6,111.25 and France's CAC 40 fell 0.83 percent to 3,169.97.

In Russia, the ruble-denominated MICEX index was down 0.45 percent to 1,456.78 points while the dollar-denominated RTS was down 0.47 percent to 1,439.61 points as of 12:28 p.m. Moscow time (08:28 GMT). The ruble fell 25 kopecks against the U.S. dollar to 31.92 and strengthened by 20 kopecks against the euro to 40.39.