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Eurozone's outlook improves, Fitch says

LONDON — The worst of Europe’s debt crisis is probably over and the odds are that no country will drop out of the euro.

Published: Jan. 16, 2013 at 12:05 a.m. PST
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LONDON — The worst of Europe’s debt crisis is probably over and the odds are that no country will drop out of the euro.

That, at least, is the view that the credit rating agency Fitch presented Tuesday to financial experts at a conference in London.

Douglas Renwick, senior director of Fitch Rating’s European sovereign credit analysis, said the 17 EU countries that use the euro have shown their capacity to muddle through to some sort of resolution of their three-year debt crisis and that a breakup of the bloc is now “very unlikely.” He said, however, that there is “plenty more” that needs to be done and that fixing the flaws at the heart of the euro project may take the rest of the decade. Despite its return to recession in 2012, the eurozone, he said, is showing signs of improvement in areas such as economic competitiveness. The impact of austerity on the economy may also have passed its peak, even in Greece.

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