Eurozone bail-out fund loses triple-A rating

The Eurozone's bail-out fund was downgraded by one notch to AA+ by the US ratings agency Standard & Poor's on Monday (16 January) - a move likely to put an extra financial burden on contributing nations, many of whom were themselves downgraded last week.

Designed to fund the rescue packages for Greece, Ireland and Portugal, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) owed its triple A rating to guarantees from eurozone countries, two of which - France and Austria - saw their own to...