italy

Standard and Poor's cut its unsolicited ratings on Italy by one notch, warning of a deteriorating growth outlook and damaging political uncertainty, in a move that took markets by surprise and added to pressure on the debt-stressed euro zone. more...

Gold held steady on Tuesday, after Standard and Poor's downgrade of Italy's credit rating heightened worries about the euro zone debt crisis ahead of a key U.S. Federal Reserve policy meeting.***** more...

Vasu Menon, VP of wealth management at OCBC Bank says Italy's lack of political willpower to execute austerity measures is the reason behind the downgrades. more...

S&P strikes Italy with a downgrade, siting high debt and low-growth prospects, with Richard Medley, RHM Global CEO, and Andrew Busch, BMO Capital Markets. more...

The implementation of Italy's reform and austerity package to balance the country's budget by 2013 is important not only for Italy, but for the euro zone as a whole, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said. more...

Italy’s center-right government is turning to cash-rich China in the hope that Beijing will help rescue it from financial crisis by making “significant” purchases of Italian bonds, the FT reports. more...

The Italian government is still wrangling over how best to balance its budget, losing credibility with key leaders and opinion formers. more...

The Italian government will pass a sweeping package of cuts and tax increases at a cabinet meeting on Friday as it scrambles to meet European Central Bank demands for action to shore up confidence in its public finances. more...

High labor taxes and low visibility on economic growth and business climate are just some of the reasons that are keeping Italian businesses from offering jobs, especially long term contracts. more...

Italy's problem is not a high budget deficit but chronically weak growth, and forcing it to frontload austerity measures just as its economy is moving into yet another downturn may prove dangerously counter productive. more...

Silvio Berlusconi’s administration has lost sovereignty and its lack of credibility has hit Italy’s reputation abroad, according to former European Competition Commissioner Mario Monti. more...

Global investors are also watching Europe as the ECB plans to buy Spanish and Italian debt on the secondary market, with CNBC's Michelle Caruso-Cabrera. more...

Discussing whether the ECB's plan to buy Italian bonds is too little too late, and whether the country is about to default, with Vincent Reinhart, American Enterprise Institute, and David Malpass, Encima Global. more...

The CEO of Italy’s biggest bank told CNBC that despite that country's high debt levels, the country is rich enough to cover its national debt. more...

CNBC's Carolin Schober and Michelle Caruso-Cabrera take a look at Italy's debt crisis fears as Silvio Berlusconi addresses the country's lower house. more...

Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi told parliament that market tension gave no sign of easing but that the country's economy was solid. more...

"Italy's problems are out of their hands and it's really the lack of credibility of the measures of the EU that were announced at the summit a week or so back that's at the heart of the problem," Peter Westaway, chief economist for Europe at Nomura told CNBC. "The key player here may actually be...

Markets are likely to keep up the pressure on Italy and Spain and the European Central Bank seems to be the only authority that could act quickly, analysts told CNBC.com Tuesday. more...

"I would say that a good deal more of stress is going to be necessary before there is any sort of intervention (in Italy)," Nick Firoozye, head of interest rates strategy at Nomura told CNBC. "If there is an intervention, it's going to have to be handled in a way that's completely different from...