Fitch has downgraded Spain’s credit rating again, ahead of a suggested 100 billion euro bailout by the EU of its banks.
Fitch put Spain’s creditworthiness at BBB, two notches above junk in its ranking scheme.
It also estimated the country’s banks would need at least 60bn euros (£49bn, $75bn), or as much as 100bn euros, a figure also mentioned by the head of Spain’s PP MEP group, who today said his figure was 100 billion euros needed for any EU bailout.
An International Monetary Fund (IMF) report due out on Monday is expected to show Spanish banks need at least 40bn euros.
It is the first of a number of reports for which the Spanish government is waiting before it decides how to recapitalise its banks.
Ratings agency Standard and Poor’s earlier said Spain’s financial system could absorb up to 60bn euros of losses on bad loans.
But if it needs to find 80-112bn euros, then the banks would need government or EU aid, it said.