After the close of trading on Friday, Moody’s said it was downgrading Belgium (why do that on a Friday, when everyone in Brussels is clearly feeling so TGIF?). Moody’s downgraded the country’s “local and foreign-currency government bond ratings by two notches to Aa3 from Aa1 with a negative outlook.”
The reason? Increased risk to countries in the Euro area with relatively high levels of debt, the possibility that economic growth in the country could falter, and potential problems on Belgium’s balance sheet. You can read the full release here.
France is also heading into the weekend with some bad news: the country’s statistics institute just forecast a 0.2% drop in GDP in the current quarter and a 0.1% drop in the first quarter of 2012. The institute expects a recession to spread throughout the euro zone, which will hurt French exports, Marketwatch reported.
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