The Fitch ratings agency said
Friday that it has raised Italy's outlook from negative to
stable, while keeping its sovereign credit rating at BBB+.
The agency cited the recent fall in Italy borrowing costs
and the programme of structural reform programme Premier Matteo
Renzi is pursuing.
Renzi, who unseated his colleague in the centre-left
Democratic Party (PD) Enrico Letta to become Italy's youngest
premier at 39 in February, has presented a package of 10 billion
euros in tax cuts for low earners.
This is part of efforts to boost the recovery - which is
weak after Italy emerged from its longest postwar recession last
year - while remaining within the European Union's allowed
deficit-to-GDP ratio of 3%.
Renzi has also embarked reforms to simplify the labour
market to encourage firms to hire, with unemployment at a record
level of 13% and over four in 10 under-25s jobless.
He also plans to overhaul the tax system and slash red
tape, while pushing through institutional reforms to make Italy
cheaper and easier to government.
"The new government of Matteo Renzi announced a structural
reform agenda with an ambitious timetable and confirmed in the
2014 Stability Programme the previous governments' commitment to
the eurozone fiscal framework, in particular, keeping deficit
below 3% of GDP in 2014 and maintaining the medium-term fiscal
consolidation path," Fitch said.
Fitch's credit rating for Italy is one notch above that of
the other two main agencies, Standard and Poor's and Moody's.
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