Fitch Still Rates Italy as the Largest Risk

“LONDON—Fitch Ratings said Tuesday that among all the countries in the euro zone, Italy poses the greatest risk to the currency bloc, as the lack of a region-wide plan to prevent the crisis from spreading has been coupled with the country’s large debt burden and high borrowing costs.

The factors are a major reason why Italy’s credit rating is likely to be downgraded by the end of January, said David Riley, head of global sovereign ratings at Fitch, speaking at a conference in London.

Italy is planning to sell €440 billion ($561.67 billion) in government bonds and Treasury bills in 2012. This is a “daunting” task given its current costs of borrowing, Mr. Riley said.”