International rating agency Standard & Poor's lowered Romania's foreign currency debt rating to "junk" status (BB+, which is below investment grade BBB-) Oct. 27. As result of the downgrade the Romanian Central Bank enacted "drastic steps" — as the British Daily Telegraph reported — to prevent capital flight, letting overnight lending rates shoot up 900 percent. As global illiquidity grips Europe's emerging markets, Romania faces the possibility of severe speculative attacks against its currency the leu, depreciation of the leu and a likely base interest rate cut that could precipitate further rate cuts across Central Europe and the Balkans. The global credit crunch, which began as a U.S. liquidity crisis, spread quickly across the world following the collapse of Lehman Brothers on Sept. 15. As it spread, the crisis unearthed existing problems that were not as visible or pressing while capital was freely available.