国际英语新闻：Greece rattles markets as Spain downgraded

Greece has entered "a death spiral of government insolvency," Thomas Mayer, chief economist at Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest bank, told Reuters.

The company cut the long-term rating on Spain to 'AA' from 'AA+' Wednesday.

"The negative outlook reflects the possibility of a downgrade if Spain's budgetary position underperforms to a greater extent than we currently anticipate," the company said in a release.

S&P also lowered its rating on Portuguese bonds by two notches to A- Tuesday, indicating that Greece's financial troubles are spreading to other highly indebted eurozone countries.

"It's not a question of the danger of contagion. Contagion has already happened," Angel Gurria, secretary general for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, said in a Bloomberg television interview Wednesday in Berlin. "This is like Ebola. When you realize you have it, you have to cut your leg off in order to survive."

Stocks extended a global slide and commodities dropped in reaction to the signs of "contagion," with the euro tumbling to a one-year low against the dollar Tuesday.

Bailout

Bailout talks between Greece, European authorities and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) began in Athens last week after Greece asked for as much as 45 billion euros in emergency loans from eurozone governments and the IMF this year, at a rate of about 5 percent.