Fitch Ratings revised down its credit outlooks for Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania and the Czech Republic from positive to stable as Europe’s economic-growth prospects deteriorate amid a sovereign debt crisis.

“Strong economic and financial linkages mean that countries in central and eastern Europe are being adversely affected by downward revisions to economic-growth prospects and heightened financial stress in the eurozone,” Ed Parker, Managing Director in the EMEA Sovereign group at Fitch in London, said today in a statement.

Eastern Europe’s export-led recovery from its worst slump since the end of communism is in jeopardy from the threat of a new recession in the U.S. and Europe’s sovereign debt crisis. The region depends on export demand from euro-area nations to drive its growth and about three-quarters of its banks are owned by foreign, mainly west European lenders.

Economic growth in the 12 former communist countries that are now part of the 27-member European Union will reach 3 percent this year, according to a World Bank report published Nov. 16.

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