Greece hits out at credit rating agency

Financial Times
December 3, 2010

Athens has criticised Standard & Poor’s after the credit agency gave warning that it might cut Greece’s sovereign debt rating.

S&P put Greece’s BB-plus sovereign rating on “credit watch,” with “negative implications”, late on Thursday. This means the agency could decide on a downgrade within three months, due to concerns over whether Athens can meet its reform targets.

The decision came as a “surprise”, said the Greek finance ministry on Friday, following the “early success of the Greek programme in terms both of fiscal consolidation and competitiveness-boosting reforms”.

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