Italian Debt Downgraded Due to Contagion Fears From Spain and Greece
July 14th, 2012
in econ_news, syndication
Econintersect: Moody's downgraded Italian government bond rating from A3 to Baa2 with negative outlook. Moody's posted on their website the reasons for the downgrade:
1. Italy is more likely to experience a further sharp increase in its funding costs or the loss of market access than at the time of our rating action five months ago due to increasingly fragile market confidence, contagion risk emanating from Greece and Spain and signs of an eroding non-domestic investor base. The risk of a Greek exit from the euro has risen, the Spanish banking system will experience greater credit losses than anticipated, and Spain's own funding challenges are greater than previously recognized.
2. Italy's near-term economic outlook has deteriorated, as manifest in both weaker growth and higher unemployment, which creates risk of failure to meet fiscal consolidation targets. Failure to meet fiscal targets in turn could weaken market confidence further, raising the risk of a sudden stop in market funding.
Reference Posts:
Rating Action: Moody's downgrades Italy's government bond rating to Baa2 from A3, maintains negative outlook
Read all the reasons for the downgrade including potential future actions which can be of further effect.
Other Eurocrisis Headlines:
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- http://www.spiegel.de/
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