Obinna Chima Standard & Poor's (S&P), one of the world's leading index providers and independent credit ratings has downgraded Nigeria's rating further from 'B+' to 'B/B'. The agency stated this in its rating released friday. It pointed out that Nigeria's economy had weakened more than expected owing to a restrictive foreign exchange regime, a marked contraction in oil production, and delayed fiscal stimulus. Furthermore, it noted that although Nigeria's general government debt has remained low, debt servicing costs as a percentage of general government revenues was high and rising. To this end, S&P's analysts stated that: "We are therefore lowering our long-term global scale ratings on Nigeria to 'B' from 'B+' and our long and short-term national scale ratings on Nigeria to 'ngBBB/ngA-2' from 'ngA/ngA-1'. "The stable outlook signals our assessments that at this lower rating the risks to the government's credit standing are balanced.