* dj s&p downgrades republic of italy, page-2

From IGM News Feed

[S&P] has lowered its unsolicited long and short term sovereign credit ratings on [ITALY] by one notch to A/A-1 from A+/A-1+ with a negative outlook on the back of weakening growth prospects and on the view that its fragile ruling coalition and policy differences will likely continue to limit the Govts ability to respond decisively. The rating agency added the Govts reform plan would unlikely boost the countrys performance and threw doubts over the implementation of its austerity package by commenting that the Govts projected EU 60bn savings may not come to fruition. When it rains it pours, with the Italian downgrade setting the stage for another nervous day of Euro weakness and risk averse trading. [EUR/USD] has fallen around 0.50% to just shy of 1.3600 on the downgrade with [S&P] futures -0.56%+. Note yest, Moody's extended its downgrade review of Italys Aa2 credit rating by a further 30 days.