France, Austria face credit rating downgrade

Standard & Poor's downgraded the credit ratings of nine eurozone countries, stripping France and Austria of their coveted triple-A status but not EU paymaster Germany, in a Black Friday 13th for the troubled single-currency area. Standards and Poor's, in a statement has said that, " The rating actions are primarily driven by our assessment that the policy initiatives that have been taken by European policy-makers in recent weeks may be insufficient to fully address ongoing systemic stresses in the eurozone "