by Isabella Bufacchi
Italy has nine pre-assigned Fridays in the 2016 European sovereign rating calendar (*). There are great expectations attached to these nine dates that start from February and are evenly spread throughout the year, once a month with a break during summertime. This year is indeed a special one, given that Italy is seeking a promotion, a change in its current outlooks from "stable" to "positive." If it were to happen, it would be a real game changer in the European sovereign rating landscapem which was severely hit by a cascade of sovereign downgrades during the euro crisis.
A move to a positive outlook on Italy's "BBB-" by S&P's, "Baa2" by Moody's, "BBB+" by Fitch and "A-low" by DBRS this year would represent a much-awaited step forward in the direction of an upgrade: in Italy's case, a rise in the rating scale would break a long bleak spell, a decade dominated by negative outlooks and downgrades, which led to the loss of a total of twenty notches inflicted by the main four global agencies.
