S&P shocks Poland with credit rating downgrade

By Marcin Goettig WARSAW (Reuters) - Standard and Poor's (S&P) unexpectedly cut Poland's credit rating a notch on Friday, saying the new government has weakened the independence of key institutions and the rating could fall further. The cut, the agency's first for Poland's hard currency debt, deals a major blow to the nationalist-minded government of the Law and Justice (PiS) party, which won an election in October promising more welfare and widely-shared prosperity. Poland, which joined the