Vatican calls timing of decision suspicious

Decision ‘could strike a severe blow for Europe’

Vatican City (AFP) The Vatican raised doubts on Saturday about t he t i ming chosen by ratings agency Standard and Poor’s to downgrade nine EU countries’ credit-worthiness.

In a front-page article headlined “Suspicious Timing,” the Holy See’s official newspaper Osser vatore Romano deplored that the rating agency’s decision came “just when the markets were showing signs of slight improvement, thanks to reduced tensions over government bonds.”

But “the attack arrived with perfect and suspicious t i ming,” said t he Vatican daily, referring to Friday’s decision to downgrade several EU countries including France and Italy.

It was “a partly expected decision, but one that could strike a severe blow for Europe as it battles the crisis,” said the paper, noting that “even Beijing has raised doubts about the credibility of these rating agencies.”

Shadow

Also on Saturday, Piero Fassino, a leading f igure of the Democratic Party which s upports P r i me Minister Mario Monti’s technocrat government, said “the ratings agencies are not the gospel on the global economy.”

For him, the downgrading of “irreproachable” countries like Austria “casts a shadow over the credibility of the judgement of agencies that answer to no one and can ruin a country’s economy with two lines of type.”