Rating Agency From China Downgrades America, Western Nations

In the opinion of China-based Dagong Global Credit Rating Co, Western nations, including the United States, are no longer worthy of their prior AAA ratings, and have all been downgraded as a result.

Major Western countries like the U.S., Germany, Britain and France were downgraded from AAA to lower levels.

The U.S. was dropped to AA, while Britain and France were cut to AA-. Germany was the best of all of them (larger countries), enjoying a AA+ rating from Dagong, the top credit rating agency in China.

Resource-rich countries like Australia and New Zealand remained at AAA, while Canada was listed at AA+. Others retaining AAA credit ratings were Denmark, Norway and Switzerland.

Economies like Spain, Italy and Belgium were downgraded to A- by Dagong.

"The reason for the global financial crisis and debt crisis in Europe is that the current international credit rating system does not correctly reveal the debtor's repayment ability," said Dagong chairman Guan Jianzhong.

Dagong states it has a goal of being a counter-weight to agencies in the West, and want to "correct the defects" of the current system.