Britain AAA rating threat; Barclays eyes US bank - papers

Fitch Ratings has delivered a serious blow to the credibility of the Government's budget plans, warning that Britain risks a loss of investor confidence and erosion of its AAA rating unless it maps out clear austerity measures.

Brian Coulton, the agency's head of sovereign ratings, said the UK has seen "the most rapid rise in the ratio of public debt to GDP of any AAA-rated country" and is courting fate with its leisurely plan to halve the deficit by the middle of the decade, writes the Telegraph. "It is frankly too slow, a pedestrian pace. Why the UK thinks it has more time than other countries, we're not sure. This needs to be reoriented," he told the Fitch forum on sovereign hotspots. Full story...