G20 ministers meeting to discuss eurozone debt crisis

Finance ministers from the G20 group of nations are meeting in Paris later to continue efforts to find a solution to the debt crisis in the eurozone. While Greece remains the central focus, fears remain that the crisis could spread to other highly indebted eurozone countries such as Spain and Italy, and exposed European banks. Greece needs its next bailout loan next month to avoid defaulting on its debt. Spain was hit by a further credit rating cut on Thursday. Standard & Poor's reduced Spain's long term rating by one notch, citing weak growth and high levels of private-sector debt. It came a week after fellow credit rating agency Fitch also cut Spain's rating. On Thursday, Fitch also downgraded the creditworthiness of UK banks Lloyds and RBS, and also Switzerland's UBS. Athens is now likely to get its next loan instalment in November after inspectors from the European Union (EU), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Central Bank said they had reached agreement with the Greek government on further austerity measures in the country. The representatives from the so-called troika had been in Athens to check on whether the Greek government was carrying out sufficient spending cuts and tax raising measures. Greece's next 8bn euros ($11bn; £7bn) payment of EU and IMF funds has been delayed since the troika inspectors called off earlier inspections in Athens at the start of September.