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- Ed Parker, head of EMEA sovereign ratings
Fitch Ratings does not plan to downgrade France's top notch AAA credit rating in 2012, while ratings of Spain and Italy as well as other countries under review could be cut by one or two notches this year, said Ed Parker, head of EMEA sovereign ratings at Fitch on Tuesday.
"On the basis of some current economic and fiscal trends in France... we wouldn't expect to downgrade France this year, unless there is a material deterioration in the euro zone."
Austria is also not "at immediate risk" of a downgrade. "One of the main risks when we look at Austria is [that] the exposure of its banks to eastern Europe and Hungary at the moment is a concern," Parker said. "But overall in the portfolio a lot of the exposure is to the more stable and better performing economies in eastern Europe like the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland."