The US rating agency Standard & Poor's threatened onTuesday to downgrade the credit rating of the eurozone's bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), dpa repoted. In a statement, Standard & Poor's said it had placed the EFSF's long-term credit rating on credit watch negative. This comes after the rating agency threatened on Monday to downgrade the credit rating of 15 of the 17 members of the eurozone. The move includes the eurozone's six AAA rated members: Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg and The Netherlands. "A credit watch negative placement indicates that, in our opinion, there is at least a one-in-two probability of the rating being lowered in the short term," S & P said. "Based on the EFSF's current structure, were we to lower one or more of the current AAA ratings on EFSF's guarantor members, all else being equal, we would lower the issuer and issue ratings on EFSF to the lowest sovereign rating on members currently rated AAA," it said.
