The Italian government has dismissed concerns over its ability to implement fiscal consolidation measures after Standard and Poor's (S&P) on Tuesday cut the country's long term credit rating by one notch, from A+ to A.

S&P said the downgrade reflected the continued "weak growth prospects" for the Italian economy and the state of its "fragile" governing coalition, which it said was likely to limit the government's ability to respond decisively to domestic and external macroeconomic challenges.

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