Greece wants 'urgent' eurozone action on rating agencies

Greece's finance minister has called for "urgent" steps by the eurozone to regulate credit rating agencies after the country was hit with a damaging downgrade by Moody's earlier this week. "I believe this is a matter that must be urgently addressed ...

Greece's finance minister has called for "urgent" steps by the eurozone to regulate credit rating agencies after the country was hit with a damaging downgrade by Moody's earlier this week.

"I believe this is a matter that must be urgently addressed at eurogroup and ecofin level," Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said in a letter to senior European Commission, eurozone and European Central Bank officials.

The letter, released by the minister's office on Thursday, noted that the agencies were "competing against each other" to predict the next crisis after failing to warn beforehand of the 2008 economic downturn.

It was addressed to eurozone finance ministers chairman Jean-Claude Juncker, ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet and European Commissioners Olli Rehn and Michel Barnier.

Moody's on Monday slashed Greece's credit rating by three notches from Ba1 to B1 and struck again on Thursday, demoting Spain by a notch to Aa2.

The latest downgrade came on the eve of a eurozone summit in Brussels to discuss bolstering the euro's defences amid increasing speculation that weak economies such as Portugal may follow Ireland and Greece and need massive bailout.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.