Bailout Fears Grow as Fitch Downgrades Spain

Credit rating is now just two notches above junk status
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jun 7, 2012 2:11 PM CDT
Bailout Fears Grow as Fitch Downgrades Spain
A man uses an ATM cash point machine at a branch of the Bankia bank in Madrid Wednesday.   (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)

More bad news for Spain in particular and Europe in general: Fitch downgraded Spain's credit rating from A to BBB today, two notches above junk, and said the nation may need as much as $126 billion to bolster its banking system. That's way up from a previous estimate of about $30 billion. The agency also predicted that Spain would remain in recession through 2013.

Politicians and investors around Europe are worried that the country will not find the money to cover the toxic property loans weighing its banks down. The expectation now is that Spain's government will have no choice but to seek an international bailout to help it bolster its lenders. (More Spain stories.)

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