Fitch: The performance of financial assets will deteriorate

FITCH, the international credit rating agency, has warned that the performance of Irish financial assets will “deteriorate materially” as the global economic downturn continues and that gross domestic product will fall 4% by the end of this year.

However, it added that the Rating Watch Negative rating it has placed on Ireland should have no negative effect on the ratings of Irish structured finance and covered bonds.

It said this would only change if Ireland were to leave the eurozone and go back to an individual national currency — something it claims is a distant possibility.