Ireland's credit rating downgraded again

Rating agency Standard & Poor's has today downgraded Ireland’s sovereign credit rating another notch, from AA+ to AA.

The downgrade has not come as a surprise and many analysts believe that Ireland will be further downgraded in the future.

"We have lowered the long-term rating on Ireland because we believe that the fiscal costs to the government of supporting the Irish banking system will be significantly higher than what we had expected when we last lowered the rating in March 2009," said an S&A statement.

"Consequently, that the net general Government debt burden will also be significantly higher over the medium term.

"We now believe that Ireland’s net general Government debt could exceed 100% of GDP over the medium term - a level that is higher than for Ireland’s ‘AA’ rated Euro-zone sovereign peers."