Posted on 09/19/2011 4:03:20 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
S&P downgrades Italy as Greek austerity row forces global stock markets lower
Credit rating agency Standard & Poor's downgraded Italy late on Monday night, on a day when panic gripped global markets as a fresh showdown over Greece renewed fears that the eurozone will be plunged into crisis.
The rating for Italy, which has Europe’s second-largest debt load, was lowered from A+, S&P said in a statement. The agency said Italythe country's net general government debt is the highest among A-rated sovereigns, and now expects it to peak later and at a higher level than it previously anticipated.
“In our view, Italy’s economic growth prospects are weakening and we expect that Italy’s fragile governing coalition and policy differences within parliament will continue to limit the government’s ability to respond decisively to domestic and external macroeconomic challenges,” S&P said in a statement.
Earlier, as Greece and the bail-out "troika" of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Union (EU) and the European Central Bank (ECB) thrashed out their differences, investors hit the sell button – hammering confidence and threatening the recovery.
Greece warned that it is just weeks away from default unless the troika releases an €8bn (£7bn) instalment of its original €110bn rescue. Creditors, though, stressed that they need evidence the country is delivering on its promised spending cuts.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
P!
Who saw this coming!??!?!?
I thought that Obamer firing S&P’s CEO fixed everything. /sarc
Rumsfeld. If Germany and France are Old Europe, Greece is Ancient History!
bump de bump.
If these countries are in such poor shape how are Libya, Tunisia, Egypt ans South Africa doing with the rating agencies?
The are living “on the kindness of strangers”.
The are living “on the kindness of strangers”.
Blanche DuBois wound up crazy in a mental institution. Living in la la land has consequences - but it fits for Libya, Tunisia, Egypt and South Africa...
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