Euro-area peripheral nations are “at best” halfway throughcorrecting the economic imbalances that helped cause the debtcrisis and must press on with structural reforms, Moody's InvestorsService said.

“Adjustments, both in the periphery and the core, have alreadytaken place — in some cases, to a significant degree,” Moody'sanalysts including by Sovereign Chief Economist Lucio Vinhas deSouza in New York said in a report published today. The process “isat best only half complete.”

Policy makers in the struggling nations of Europe's peripheryare trying to rewire their economies to generate the growth theyneed to pay their debts. The European Union and the InternationalMonetary Fund have pledged at least 393 billion euros ($485billion) in aid to Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain to help thempay their bills while they implement reforms.