Moody's downgrades Greece as deficit worse than predicted

Ratings agency Moody's has downgraded Greece following news that its budget deficit reached a worse than expected 13.6% of GDP last year.

Moody's downgraded the country from A2 to A3 this afternoon after Eurostat, the EU statistics agency, revised down the figure from an earlier estimate of 12.7%. Yields on Greece's 10-year bonds reached highs of 8.8% and its two-year bonds reached 10.1% - the highest levels since 1998. The cost of insuring Greek government debt against default hit a record high of 616 basis points. The news has also hurt stock markets. This afternoon the FTSE 100 was down 1.02%, while the Dow Jones fell 0.85%. Economists say Greece now has no choice but to formally seek help from the eurozone member...