And so the banking crises and the sovereign debt crises rumble on, with endless meetings in Brussels that have so far achieved stupendously little given the time already devoted. We are being reassured that progress is taking place, so perhaps just a little longer...
In the meantime several more European downgrades have been occupying the rating agencies. On the 18th October Moody's cut Spain's sovereign credit rating, making it the last of the big three rating agencies to take such action, lowering the rating from Aa2 to A1. A couple of weeks before, Fitch had cut Spain's sovereign rating to A minus from double A, followed closely by a similar move by Standard and Poor's. Considering Spain's sovereign rating was triple A status until September last year, recent downgrades mark the latest turn in a significant drop. Moody's cited reasons of political uncertainty (further elections could see the conservative People's Party make huge gains in elections on November 20th), unrealistic deficit reduction plans (from 9.2 per cent of GDP last year to 4.4 per cent in 2012) with equally unrealistic growth figures (forecasts of 1.8 per cent growth have been estimated by Moody's to be closer to 1 per cent). Further reasons cited include the government debts of Spain's 17 autonomous regions, and the willingness of these to curb their spending.
Moody's have also downgraded both Belgium and Italy, the latter following a similar move by Standard and Poor's last month. Standard and Poor's have also downgraded three large Italian banks although it confirmed the ratings of 18 large banks - including the largest by assets. 21 regional banks were also downgraded. However concerns have been raised by the head of Italy's banking association and chairman of Monte dei Paschi, Giuseppe Mussari, that EU bank recapitalisation plans being discussed in Brussels could do more harm than good in Italy by forcing banks to hold 'unnecessary' amounts of capital and exacerbating the sovereign debt crisis. Italy's 10-year bond yield rose 7 basis points to 5.867 per cent on Tuesday, the highest close since before the European Central Bank began buying Italian bonds on August 8 to try keep down borrowing costs.
As negotiations to bail out Greece and the Euro with it continue in Brussels, Moody's has announced that it may change the outlook on France's triple A rating from stable to negative in the next three months. As is customary in such situations, a downgrade is neither forthcoming or imminent, but the mere prospect of such sends shivers through the markets and French banks' shares fell following the announcement. Moody's praised France's 'very high economic strength', its 'ample capacity to absorb shocks' and its 'favourable public debt maturity', along with political efforts aimed at fiscal consolidation. However, the global financial and economic crisis had, according to the rating agency, led to a deterioration in French 'government debt metrics'.
The agency stated that France's finances were now among the weakest of those countries which still had a triple A rating. France's public finances are not only looking vulnerable but French banks are heavily indebted to Greece. Standard and Poor's last week downgraded BNP Paribas by one notch from double A to double A minus citing exposure to Greek debt. What's more, major consequences could follow for France if Greece defaults on its liabilities and markets react poorly, or if there are any further defaults. Add in the fact that France has been gradually becoming less competitive for businesses over the past years - in contrast to neighbouring Germany - and it becomes easy to understand why Sarkozy might be worried. Moody's isn't alone, however, as Standard and Poor's included France in the role call of countries likely to see further downgrades in the case of a double dip recession - alongside Spain, Italy, Ireland and Portugal. France's public debt is approaching 90 per cent of GDP and so a downgrade could prove extremely painful, even though this figure is set to fall as France's budgetary deficit is brought down from 5.7% currently to 3% in 2013. These figures are - as most Eurozone projections - based on optimistic growth forecasts. France anticipates 1.75% over the next year. Most commentators doubt this will materialize, either making deficit reduction a longer-term goal, or necessitating further austerity measures in the run up to the election next year.
France is already committed to €158.5bn ($217bn) in guarantees for the new eurozone rescue fund, the European financial stability facility, which is equivalent to 8.5 per cent of GDP. It has also just agreed to guarantees for the failing Franco-Belgian bank Dexia. Now these don't matter much unless and until one of these fails, at which point the government is bound to step in. But it does mean that France has much less room for manoeuvre on its balance sheets than it did three years ago, leaving it vulnerable to further financial shocks. It is also limited in the resources it can supply to the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF), and Germany's peas for a greater Greek write-off followed by French re-leveraging of banks is, as a consequence, increasingly difficult. Politically, at least, Sarkozy has hailed the AAA rating as 'untouchable', and while rating agencies take political direction into account, it will no doubt take more than a statement of intent to preserve France's rating.
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