Italy’s credit rating lowered by S&P

Standard & Poor’s on Friday lowered Italy’s credit rating by one notch on concerns about weak growth and increasing debt while maintaining a stable outlook.
S&P dropped Italy’s long and short-term sovereign credit rating to ‘BBB-/A-3′ from ‘BBB/A-2′, the ratings agency said in a statement.
The agency revised its gross domestic product growth estimates for Italy over the 2014-2017 forecast horizon down to 0.5 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively, from 1.0 percent and 1.9 percent.
“Persistently low inflation and a difficult business environment continue to weigh on Italy’s economic prospects,” it said.
S&P also revised its estimate of Italian public debt, seeing an increase of €80 billion by the end of 2017, or 4.9 percent of estimated 2014 GDP.
Source and full story: The Local (Italy), 6 December 2014