Credit ratings: how Fitch, Moody's and S&P rate each country . Visualised

Standard and Poor's has downgraded nine countries in the eurozone. See how different credit rating agency compare countries
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How do credit ratings vary by country and by ratings agencies? France has been stripped of its coveted AAA credit rating in a mass downgrade of nine eurozone countries by Standard & Poor's.

It also cut Austria's triple-A rating, and relegated Portugal and Cyprus to junk status.

Larry Elliott and Philip Inman write today that

The humiliating loss of France's top-rated status leaves Germany as the only other major economy inside the eurozone with a AAA rating, and rekindled financial market anxiety about a possible break-up of the single currency

S&P downgraded the ratings of Cyprus, Italy, Portugal and Spain by two notches. Austria, France, Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia were all cut by one notch.

Last August America lost its AAA rating when S&Pdowngraded it to AA+, despite a deal being drawn to raise the US debt ceiling.

S&P warned last July that the US faced a 50-50 chance of having their credit rating cut within the next three months. Shortly after the agency put the US on a negative watch, the value of the dollar fell.

Moody's have re-assessed the credit ratings of several countries. Ireland had their credit rating slashed last year , down two notches to Baa3 - leaving it at just above junk status, with the verdict being delivered as the Euro dropped against the dollar. Portugal and Greece also saw their credit ratings being slashed by the agency.

So, who are the ratings agencies? The big three agencies are Fitch, Moody's and Standard & Poors. What they do is assess how likely a borrower is to be able to repay its debts and help those trading debt contracts in the secondary market.

That means for those trading debt contracts such as treasury gilts after they've been issued, ratings agencies help assess a fair price to charge. Ratings agencies have been criticised for having too much clout in jittery markets during the financial crisis. They were widely attacked for failing to warn of the risks posed by certain securities, in particular mortgage-backed securities.

Losing your rating or being downgraded can have a fatal effect on your country's ability to borrow money on the markets.

Thanks to the three big agencies, we can bring you the ratings of countries around the world as of today. Because each agency's approach is slightly different, we've colour-coded them in three broad categories too. All the ratings have been updated today, however ratings for previous updates in April 2010 and September 2011 are in the spreadsheet, so you can see how ratings have changed over time.

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