Ratings downgrade for eurozone five

US ratings agency Fitch said it was downgrading the credit ratings of five countries that use the euro, including economic heavyweights Italy and Spain.

Fitch said the downgraded countries – the others are Belgium, Cyprus, and Slovenia – faced economic headwinds from the eurozone debt crisis that could diminish their ability to sustain their own debt.

The downgrade was expected. It comes on top of a downgrade of nine eurozone countries by another agency, Standard & Poor’s, on 13 January.

The move was another setback to European leaders’ efforts to contain a crisis over too much government debt in some euro member countries. Ireland, Greece and Portugal have been cut off from bond market borrowing by fears they might default. They have had to take bailout loans from other eurozone governments and the International Monetary Fund.