Spanish government says had not expected S&P downgrade MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's Secretary of State for the Economy Fernando Jimenez Latorre said on Thursday that the Spanish government had not expected a sovereign debt downgrade by ratings agency Standard & Poor's. "We did not expect the downgrade," Fernando Jimenez Latorre said during a press conference. Latorre said he hoped the rating agency would reconsider its position on Spanish debt as the country meets its fiscal consolidations targets. Standard & Poor's on Wednesday cut Spain's sovereign credit rating to BBB-minus, one notch above junk territory, citing a deepening economic recession that is limiting the government's policy options to arrest the slide. Reporting by Rodrigo de Miguel; writing by Jesús Aguado; editing by Paul Day