Moody's strips Ireland of its last AAA rating

Moody's on Thursday cut Ireland's government bond rating to 'Aa1' from 'Aaa', becoming the last of the three main agencies to strip one of the industrialised world's worst performing economies of its top credit rating. "Moody's concluded that there was a case for only a moderate rating downgrade at this stage in light of the decisiveness of the policy response as well as the government's strong balance sheet position prior to the crisis," it said.
Standard & Poor's cut its rating last month for the second time this year to AA, while Fitch has downgraded Ireland by one notch to AA+ so far. The euro hit the day's low against the dollar and the spread between Irish and German government bonds widened after Moody's cut the rating and said the outlook was negative.