Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has downgraded Spain’s credit rating, citing rising worries over sluggish growth and highlighting the vulnerability of the euro zone’s bigger economies as the region tries to tackle its sovereign debt crisis, BBC informs. S&P lowered late Thursday Spain’s debt rating to AA-minus from AA and assigned it a negative outlook. “Despite signs of resilience in economic performance during 2011, we see heightened risks to Spain’s growth prospects due to high unemployment, tighter financial conditions, the still-high level of private sector debt, and the likely economic slowdown in Spain’s main trading partners,” the ratings company said in a statement. S&P downgraded 10 Spanish banks, including BBVA and Santander, citing a still-depressed real-estate market and capital-market turbulence. Shortly afterwards, Fitch Ratings downgraded those two Spanish banks and four others.
