S&P cuts credit outlook for Italy to negative

Standard & Poor's cut its rating outlook for Italy to negative from stable, citing weak growth prospects and increased risks it would fail to slash its debt mountain. This may heighten fears that contagion from Greece's and other European countries' debt crisis could be spreading to the euro zone's third-largest economy.

S&P's said it cut its forecasts because of fears that Italy's fragile centre-right coalition government may struggle to cut the country's vast public deficit.