Vesnovskaya Maria, The credit ratings of two EU countries - Hungary and Portugal - have been downgraded to junk status. Italy has joined the French-German consultations on the Eurozone’s bailout. No specific decisions have been adopted so far.Hungary described the country’s downgrade to BB+ as a “financial attack”. According to a Hungarian government statement, the country’s debt is dwindling, budget deficit is going down too, and a substantial GDP growth was reported in Q3. Moody’s experts explained the downgrade by the falling forint rate. Given that two thirds of the country’s state debt is serviced in foreign currency, a decrease in the forint rate led to an increase in debt payments. Hungary will have to boost taxes and reduce social benefits, Oleg Barabonov of the Moscow Institute of International Relations, says. Source: Voice of Russia.
