The euro fell to a fresh 11-year low versus the yen on Monday following Standard & Poor's sweeping downgrade of nine countries in the sovereign debt-hit eurozone late last week.

The euro depreciated 0.4 percent to 97.19 yen after dropping to 97.04, marking the single currency's lowest level versus the yen since December 2000.

At 1:00 p.m., the euro fell 0.2 percent to 1.2650 U.S. dollars in Tokyo from the close in New York on Jan. 13 when it hit 1.2624 U.S. dollars, marking its lowest level against the U.S. currency since Aug. 25, 2010.

Traders said the euro slid following fears S&P's broad downgrade signaled a worsening state of the financial situation in the 17-member, single currency bloc.

"Negative news keeps coming out of Europe. If other rating agencies such as Moody's follow S&P's downgrading, the euro will face further selling," said Yuzo Sakai, manager of foreign exchange business promotion at Tokyo Forex & Ueda Harlow.

S&P issued a warning on Jan. 13 stating that collective and regional efforts made to battle the debt crisis in Europe had fallen short of prerequisites and expectations and as such the New York-based rating company was left with no choice but to issue the downgrades.

France and Austria were both stripped of their stellar triple-A rating while Italy, Spain, Portugal and Cyprus had their ratings cut by two notches. Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia, meanwhile, were lowered one notch and Germany, Belgium, and Ireland's ratings were kept the same.

With a number of eurozone countries still on watchlists for review, global markets are bracing for more possible downgrades from other credit agencies, amid growing concerns that a key bond swap may result in a debt default for troubled Greece and that the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) may lose its triple-A rating status.