Euro ends week with strong gains despite Fitch downgrade of five euro zone nations
On Friday, Fitch Ratings cut the credit ratings of five euro zone nations Belgium, Cyprus, Italy, Slovenia and Spain, while affirming Ireland’s credit rating as it concluded the review of the six euro zone sovereigns it placed on Rating Watch Negative (RWN) on 16 December 2011. Fitch downgraded Italy to A minus from A+, while Spain was cut to A from AA-, both nations by 2 notches. Belgium was cut to AA from AA+, Cyprus was downgraded to BBB- from BBB and Slovenia was cut to A from AA-.
