ROME, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- Standard and Poor's downgraded the credit ratings of 13 major Italian local governments on Monday, including the cities of Rome, Milan, Florence, Bologna and Genoa.
The move follows S&P's Jan. 13 decision to downgrade Italy's sovereign rating from A to BBB+. It is in line with its method of generally not giving local governments a higher rating after the central government was downgraded, according to Italy's ANSA news agency.
The regional governments of Campania, Emilia-Romagna, Sicily, Liguria, Marche, Umbria and Friuli Venezia Giulia were downgraded too, along with the province of Rome. The outlook for all those local governments was "negative".
Fitch also downgraded Italy from A+ to A- status on Friday, even though the markets are showing more confidence in the country following Prime Minister Mario Monti's efforts to ease the debt crisis, with yields on Italian bonds declining in recent weeks, local media said.
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