Video: Live clip of Stiff Little Fingers performing Alternative Ulster -- 1979 Tour
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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Standard & Poor's Ratings Services downgraded Ireland's credit rating Tuesday on concern about the cost of bailing out the country's ailing banks.
S&P lowered Ireland's long-term sovereign credit rating to AA- from AA and kept its outlook on negative, suggesting the ratings agency could cut again.
The downgrade applies to other ratings that depend on Ireland's sovereign credit rating, including senior unsecured debt ratings on government-guaranteed securities of Irish banks, S&P noted.
The total cost of Ireland's support for its banking sector may now reach 90 billion euros ($114 billion), or 58% of GDP, S&P estimated. That's up from a previous forecast of 80 billion euros.
"The rising budgetary cost of supporting the Irish financial sector will further weaken the government's fiscal flexibility over the medium term," S&P's Cullinan said Tuesday.
In the wake of the new bailout of Anglo Irish Bank, S&P now reckons Ireland's net general government debt will climb toward 113% of gross domestic product in 2012.
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