On October 20 Standard & Poor's will revise its rating on Italy. On November 10, Fitch will also do so, and on the 17th Moody's will do its part. The three companies will have to assess Italy's financial reliability and determine whether or not the public debt is repayable. A dreaded judgment because the country's stability also depends on it. Therefore, it is crucial to know from what baseline the three international agencies start to give their ratings. In its last assessment given in April, Standard & Poor's confirmed its rating on Italy at "BBB" and confirmed the outlook, calling it "stable.l". S&P's rating is similar to Fitch's May one, but higher than Moody's, which in the first part of this year did not change its rating, namely "BBB-", corresponding to the lowest of the rating steps that according to these agencies characterize "safe" (investment grade) investments. In 37 years, the three agencies have promoted Italy (i.e., improved their rating) only 3 times. All other times have been failures or, at best, no change in the rating.
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