taly, Malta, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain had their sovereign debt ratings downgraded, whereas Austria, France and the United Kingdom had their ratings changed to negative.

Moody's quotes uncertainty over the eurozone's prospects for institutional reform, the increasingly weak macroeconomic prospects, and the impact that these factors will continue to have on market confidence as the main reasons for the downgrade.

The outlook on the ratings of the countries which were downgraded "remains negative given the continuing uncertainty over financing conditions over the next few quarters and its corresponding impact on creditworthiness."

The move comes less than two weeks after another rating agency, Fitch, downgraded Slovenia's long-term issuer default rating by two notches to A from AA- with a negative outlook, and its short-term rating by one notch to F1 from F1+.