Italy, DBRS raises outlook to stable from negative, confirming rating of A (low) – Reuters Italy

       

MILAN, March 27 (Reuters) – DBRS has improved the trend, or the outlook on Italy’s sovereign rating to ‘stable’ from ‘negative’, confirming Assessment A (low).

       

With the action today by DBRS, all four agencies followed by the ECB (S & amp; P, Moody’s, Fitch plus DBRS) are to have a stable outlook on the ratings of Italy, in a sort of end point of the long descent phase of the sovereign credit of the country triggered by the financial crisis.

       

In a statement DBRS says that the stabilization of the outlook reflects three key factors: the “robust” sustainability profile of the debt, favored by funding costs low by historical standards and the expansionary measures by the ECB; the “progress” made by the government in the implementation of a broad structural reform agenda; the recent “strengthening” in terms of the share of the banking sector.

       

The agency also confirmed the assessment of short-term R-1 (low), maintaining a trend ‘stable’.

       

DBRS is the only of the four agencies followed by the ECB, which has always maintained the rating of Italy in area ‘A’, preserve government bonds by a worsening of their evaluation as collateral in refinancing operations.

       

DBRS began to cover the Italian sovereign issuer in February 2011 with an evaluation AA (low). Since then, Italy was downgraded three times, a ‘notch’ every time, most recently in March 2013 with the rating dropped to the current level.

       

The next pronouncement on the calendar on the sovereign rating of Italian will be Friday, April 24, from Fitch that currently has a rating of BBB + with a stable outlook.

        
        
       

On the site www.reuters.it other news Reuters in Italian. The top news also on www.twitter.com/reuters_italia

       
          © Thomson Reuters 2015 All rights reserved Market Reuters.