Moody's cuts ratings, outlooks on 9 EU countries

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Moody's on Monday downgraded the debt ratings of Italy, Spain and Portugal and placed negative outlooks on France, Britain and Austria, blaming the ongoing fallout from the eurozone crisis.

Ratings were also cut for Slovenia, Slovakia and Malta, with Moody's saying all nine countries were increasingly susceptible to financial and macroeconomic risks from the euro area crisis.

Moody's said that Europe's weakening economic prospects "threaten the implementation of domestic austerity programs and the structural reforms that are needed to promote competitiveness."

The agency questioned the implementation of institutional reform in the euro area and whether adequate resources will be pulled together to deal with the crisis.

Moody's said those factors will keep market confidence fragile "with a high potential for further shocks to funding conditions for stressed sovereigns and banks."

"To a varying degree, these factors are constraining the creditworthiness of all European sovereigns and exacerbating the susceptibility of a number of sovereigns to particular financial and macroeconomic exposures."

The downgrades came a day after Greece and Europe appeared to pass a major hurdle when the Greek parliament agreed to a tough austerity package despite rioting in the streets of Athens and other cities.