LONDON (Standard&Poor's CreditWire) March 31, 1999--Standard&Poor's today upgraded its long-term issuer credit and senior unsecured debt ratings on the Kingdom of Spain to double-'A'-plus from double-'A'. At the same time, Standard&Poor's affirmed its 'A-1'-plus short-term issuer credit and commercial paper debt ratings on Spain. The outlook is revised to stable from positive. The upgrade reflects a further narrowing of the gap in creditworthiness between Spain and its higher-rated EU partners in line with ongoing real and nominal economic convergence over the past few years. Nominal convergence, in particular, has accelerated since the confirmation last May that Spain would participate in full Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) from January 1999. Real convergence has also been
