NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's CreditWire) April 14, 1999--Standard&Poor's today lowered its long-term corporate credit and senior unsecured debt ratings for Whirlpool Corp. to triple-'B'-plus from single-'A'-minus. The corporate credit rating for Whirlpool Financial Corp. also was lowered to triple-'B'-plus from single-'A'-minus, and the rating on Whirlpool Financial's preferred stock was lowered to triple-'B'-minus from triple-'B'. These ratings are removed from CreditWatch, where they were placed Feb. 8, 1999. The outlook is stable. The 'A-2' short-term corporate credit and commercial paper ratings for Whirlpool Corp. were affirmed. The short-term ratings were not previously on CreditWatch. Total debt outstanding at Dec. 31, 1998 was approximately $2.0 billion. The downgrade reflects a prolonged period of weakened credit ratios and Standard
