Michel Barnier, EU Commissioner for Internal Markets, has warned that it may require additional regulations on the role of credit agencies in the markets, Air Force forward. He told Parliament that he was surprised by the rapid decrease in the rating of Greece. In December, will come into effect new rules for agencies under which they will have to explain how they decided to change a rating. According to Barnier, however, may require further tightening of regulations for agencies. He said he is considering creating a new agency to evaluate government ratings. Barnier stressed that the impact of the agencies is very important not only to companies but also for individual countries. At the end of April, Standard & Poor’s lowered its rating on Greece to “junk” (high-risk securities). Critics of the rating agencies indicate that they have so much power that their assessments are becoming self-realization is prophecy. Rating downgrades could lead to sales of government bonds or lack of interest in new issues. This lowered the price of bonds and increase their profitability, which in turn further limited government finances and theoretically can cause further decreases in ratings. In recent months, Greece has sought unsuccessfully to combat precisely this vicious circle.
Read the full story

The International rating agency Moody’s will review over the next three months the credit rating of Portugal with a possible decrease in the direction of one or two degrees, said in a statement the agency, quoted by RIA Novosti. Now Portugal’s credit rating is “Aa2″. The intention of Moody’s is continuing to assess the situation to deteriorate to government debt. In the view of analysts from the rating agency, taking into account the small size of the economy of Portugal and its poor growth performance of these public debt may not fully reflect the rating of “Aa2″. At the end of April ratings agency Standard & Poor’s lowered the long-term credit rating of Portugal with two degrees – from “A +” to “A-” to “negative” outlook. At the end of 2009 government debt of Portugal was up nearly 77 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) of the country, for comparison, the external debt of Greece has 120% of GDP. Meanwhile, analysts note that in Portugal the threat can come from many large private sector debt, which exceeded the indicator for Greece. According to forecasts by the European Commission (EC) GDP growth this year Portugal will be 0.5 percent and for 2011 – 0.7%.
Read the full story

The wave of increased sales, which covered yesterday the securities markets in Europe and the U.S. broke today and Asian stock exchanges. Although it was expected, the decision by ratings agency Standard & Poor’s to cut the credit rating of Greece and Portugal brought sharp decreases in the indexes and the risk premium on government securities of the two countries jumped sharply. Regional stock measure MSCI Asia Pacific, which brings together public companies from 10 Asian countries plus Australia and New Zealand slid 1.6 percent to 125.20 points today. This is his fourth decline in five trading session, and meanwhile the cost of insurance to protect against the failure of Asian countries reached its highest level since February. Stock prices of raw materials and the euro rate fell because of concerns that the fiscal crisis in Greece will be released in the eurozone. President of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet will meet with German politicians and the head of the International Monetary Fund Dominique Strauss-Kahn in Berlin today to discuss a possible rescue plan for Greece. All ten industry groups included in the MSCI Asia Pacific, noted a sharp drop as financial companies ran among the losers. Among national indexes in the region most Japanese Nikkei fell 225, which slid 2.6 percent to 10 924.79 points as investors shrugged off a strong 5-percent increase in retail sales in Japan in March.
Read the full story