S&P Downgraded Sovereign Credit Rating of 9 European Countries

Standard and Poor's on Friday, after warning the euro zone that it would downgraded several countries if they did not come to an agreement on the financial crisis and had a plan in place to save the euro zone from a possible recession, downgraded the sovereign credit ratings of nine countries including France and Austria.

Germany, due to it being the healthies economy in the euro zone, was not downgraded.

The following countries had the ratings dropped by one notch: Austria, France, Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia. Cyprus, Italy, Portugal and Spain dropped by two notches.

Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands had their ratings affirmed and were removed for S&P CreditWatch list, where they were placed with "negative implications" in December.