Credit rating agency Standard & Poor's has lowered its status for the Netherlands from AAA to AA+, but assigned the country a "stable" outlook, the agency said in a statement on Friday.

"In our view, the Netherlands' growth prospects are now weaker than we had previously anticipated, and the real GDP per capita trend growth rate is lower than that of peers at similarly high levels of economic development," the agency said in a statement.

However, the agency assigned a stable outlook to the long-term ratings, reflecting their view of limited downside risk the Netherlands' creditworthiness.

The most important reason for the downgrade is fall in consumer spending as a result by high household debt levels and falling house prices. Therefore, economic growth is lower than S&P had expected. Gross domestic production is also lower than that of comparable countries.

"Although the Dutch economy has seen strong growth in exports recently, this has been offset by weak domestic demand," the agency said. "We see a number of reasons for this weak demand including fiscal consolidation, high household debt, falling asset prices and highly leveraged banks."

The agency stressed that the adoption of the 2014 budget and an additional 6 billion euros (8 billion U.S. dollars) package of measures need political consensus.

"Proposals need support from the opposition in the senate. However, future opposition support is not a foregone conclusion," the agency stated.