Fitch downgrades credit ratings for Finland to AA plus

Credit rating agency Fitch has downgraded the credit ratings for the Finnish government from the best possible AAA to AA plus, but with a "stable" outlook.

Finland registered an economic growth of 0.4 percent last year and there is no proof of strong potential growth now, Fitch noted in its ratings published late Friday.

Finland will recover slowly this year, but will suffer from the growth of public debt, it said.

Of the world's three major credit rating agencies, two listed Finland as AA plus.

So far Finland has AA plus from Standard & Poors, which reduced its ratings for Finland from AAA to AA plus in October 2014.

Finland still enjoys AAA ratings from Moody's. Earlier this year, Moody's kept its earlier ratings for Finland and did not issue a new one.

Finnish Finance Minister Alexander Stubb suggested early Saturday that the Finns take the decline in the government's credit ratings seriously.

In a blog entry, Stubb said the decline indicated that those observing the country from abroad have started losing their faith in Finland's ability to change, noting that all other major Nordic countries have the highest level of credit.

Stubb reminded people of the fact that Finland was among the countries that got a warning from the European Commission in the past week about the state of the public sector economy. The commission demanded that Finland take measures to reduce the increasing public deficit and debt.

The latest rating by Fitch reached Finland at the end of a week when agreements between employers and employees on improving the country's competitive edge hit new obstacles.

Even though an agreement had been reached at central organization level, several key workers' unions broke away from the deal.

The deal would keep salary increases at nought now and later tie them to the situation of export industries. Endi