As it continues to struggle with its creditors, Greece was downgraded by Fitch Ratings. By Everett Rosenfeld / CNBC
The ratings agency lowered Greece’s long-term foreign and local currency issuer default ratings to “CCC” from “B.” The issue ratings on Greece’s senior unsecured foreign and local currency bonds were also downgraded to “CCC” from “B,” and the short-term foreign currency IDR were lowered to “C” from “B.” The country ceiling was revised to “B-” from “BB,” Fitch said.
The downgrade was an out-of-cycle move for Fitch, which means that it came out earlier than the next scheduled review.
“The next scheduled review date for Fitch’s sovereign rating on Greece is 15 May 2015, but Fitch believes that developments in Greece warrant such a deviation from the calendar,” the firm said in a news release.
Fitch cited several key ratings drivers in its downgrade, including the fact that “lack of market access, uncertain prospects of timely disbursement from official institutions and tight liquidity conditions in the domestic banking sector have put extreme pressure on Greek government funding.”
Fitch also “significantly” revised its growth forecast for Greece down to 0.5 percent for this year, from a 1.5 percent forecast in January 2015 and 2.5 percent in December 2014.
“The damage to investor, consumer and depositor confidence has almost certainly derailed Greece’s incipient economic recovery. The damage will take time to repair even if prospects for a successful program completion improve over the coming days or weeks,” Fitch said.
Greece has submitted a new list of reforms to its creditors, officials said on Friday.
