Spain hit by downgrades amid Greek contagion fears

Spain's economic woes deepened on Thursday (17 May) as 16 of its banks and four regions were downgraded by Moody's ratings agency, while statistics confirmed the country is still in recession.

The US-based ratings agency cut between one and three notches the ratings of 16 Spanish banks - many of them regional banks - and of Santander UK, the British subsidiary of the big Spanish lender, due to the "renewed recession, the ongoing real-estate crisis and persistent high levels of unemploy...