New York (Standard&Poor's CreditWire) March 26, 2001--Standard&Poor's today lowered its long-term local currency sovereign credit rating on the Republic of Argentina to single-'B'-plus from double-'B', and its long-term foreign currency sovereign credit rating to single-'B'-plus from double-'B' minus. The single-'B' short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings remain unchanged. All the ratings remain on CreditWatch with negative implications, where they were placed on March 19, 2001. The triple-'A' rating on Argentina's $250 million zero-coupon bond series B, which benefits from a rolling guarantee from the World Bank and matures next month, is unaffected. The remaining series are to be downgraded one notch, to double-'B'-plus. The downgrade reflects a difficult policy environment, in which the government
