Greece got a much-needed lift in its battered credit rating yesterday, but the move didn’t stop street rioting over pay cuts and strikes crippling the socialist-led nation.

Credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s took Greece off its credit watch list for now, enabling the country to hold down interest costs for borrowing its way out of its debt crisis. S&P said Greece’s austerity package was “appropriate.”

Greece is under pressure from the EU to slash its excessive spending and debt levels, which have been eroding the euro’s value.

A joint statement yesterday by finance ministers of the nations in the EU provided a broad agreement to assist Greece’s austerity efforts, but gave no details for fear of disrupting investments in Greece’s recent $6.2 billion debt offering.

Investors are watching to see how Greece’s interest rate spreads evolve in coming months.

S&P’s reprieve helped rally all European stock exchanges yesterday back into the black, year-to-date.

Meanwhile, police and protesters traded tear gas and rocks in violent confrontations outside parliament yesterday for the second straight week of protests against an austerity plan to prevent a government default.

Civil service workers widened their wildcat strikes to include a nurses’ walkout at state hospitals.

Utility workers at the government’s power company used rolling blackouts in urban areas to protest the government belt-tightening moves aimed at impressing investors and sister nations the European Union.