French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé said in a newspaper interview Thursday that for France to lost its AAA rating "wouldn't be good news, but it wouldn't be a cataclysm either". Ratings agencies have said they are reevaluating eurozone states.
European markets and the euro fell Tuesday following Standard & Poor's warning of an imminent eurozone downgrade. The ratings agency's statement effectively ended the rally in global equities that had taken place in recent days.
Standard & Poor's has raised the spectre of a mass European downgrade if EU leaders are unable to offer a convincing solution to the debt crisis at a summit on Friday. The ratings agency's warning applies to 15 eurozone countries including France.
US and European stocks closed down Monday due to a lack of progress in dealing with the ongoing debt crisis on both sides of the Atlantic and following a warning from Moody's that France's "AAA" rating was at risk.
While speculation over Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s prospective successor abounds, respected academic and former EU competition commissioner Mario Monti has surfaced as the favourite.
Valverde del Camino is a Spanish city of 13,000 inhabitants with a debt of 55 million euros. The local police haven't been paid for six months. Sadly the town is not alone - hundreds of local councils across the country are riddled with massive debts.
Credit rating agency Moody's has downgraded 12 British financial institutions, including Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland, claiming the government has become less inclined to step in when banks get into trouble.
Meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly are the BRICS nations. That's the group of five emerging global economies made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Ahead of the meeting, Brazil's President Rousseff made it clear that her country wants to help bail out some of Europe's most debt-stricken governments. But will the other BRICS nations agree?
Credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s said on Thursday that it was confident France would maintain its top-notch AAA rating despite recent worries over the health of the French economy and some of France's banks.
