• S&P confirms Italy's rating and bets on support from the ECB

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April 28, 2020 Fitch cuts Italy's rating from 'BBB' to 'BBB-'. The outlook is stable. This was announced by the international rating agency in a press release underlining that the next rating review date for Italy is scheduled for 10 July 2020 but Fitch considered "that developments in the country involve a change from the scheduled date" . The rating cut, the agency points out, "reflects the significant impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the Italian economy" which in 2020 according to Fitch should record an 8% drop.

Gualtieri takes note: fundamentals are solid
The Minister of Economy and Finance, Roberto Gualtieri, "takes note of today's decision by the Fitch agency to downgrade the creditworthiness of the Italian Republic to the BBB- level, with stable outlook". The Mef announced this by specifying that the agency intervened by anticipating the rating evaluation scheduled for 10 July. "The acceleration - it is underlined - would be justified by the ongoing deterioration of the macroeconomic and public finance framework. However, these are effects entirely due to an exogenous and temporary cause. The assessment of the impacts on growth prospects and creditworthiness is discounted. inevitably a considerable margin of uncertainty. The other rating agencies have indeed taken a more cautious attitude. " The assessment, emphasizes the MEF, "does not take into account the relevant decisions taken in the European Union, by the States that make it up and by the institutions that are part of it. In particular, the strategic orientation of the European Central Bank and the interventions that are about to be carried out with the sharing of responsibility for managing the reaction to the crisis and the related financing costs ". "The fundamentals of Italy's economy and public finance - underlines the MEF - are solid. The production system is very diversified, with a consolidated trade surplus and a net financial position vis-à-vis foreign countries very close to equilibrium. average cost of our debt continues to decline, including in the current year, and the growing portion of the debt held by the Central Bank will also ensure that the net interest disbursement remains in line with that of this year " .