Europe is pushing through severe spending cuts, but the credit rating agency Moody's has struck again.
The rating agency imposed a negative outlook on Britain's triple-A rating late - the first such warning on London's debt since the eurozone crisis - saying the country's finances were too weak to cope with another big shock.
The stakes for Prime Minister David Cameron are high. Costly bank bailouts and runaway public spending rises under his predecessor Gordon Brown have saddled Britain with one of the developed world's highest budget deficits.
Al Jazeera's Laurence Lee reports now from London.
