Europe sees another round of sovereign downgrades.

Five European countries  had their sovereign credit rating downgraded by Fitch on Friday as the risk of contagion continues to spread through the euro area.

Belgium and Cyrprus both suffered a one notch downgrade from AA+ to AA and BBB to BBB- respectively. Spain and Slovenia  dropped two notches from AA- to A, while Italy also saw its rating fall two notches from A+ to A-.

The countries were placed on rating watch negative in December 2011 in response to the lack of clarity in the structure of an economically reformed euro zone, the risk of a liquidity and solvency crisis and the lack of a credible firewall to prevent contagion, according to the agency.

Ireland was not downgraded despite being in the same review. Fitch points to the strong political support for the country's fiscal consolidation plan and the current BBB+ rating for Ireland already factoring in liquidity issues.