This article presents updates to S&P Global Ratings' country risk assessments. We currently review 136 assessments using the criteria in "Country Risk Assessment Methodology And Assumptions," published Nov. 19, 2013, on RatingsDirect (see table 1 in the Appendix).
Latest Country Risk Actions
Since we last published this report on May 11, 2020, we have:
- Revised the country risk assessment on Greece to '4' (moderately high risk) from '5' (high risk). This reflects the country's improved institutional and governance effectiveness, due to reforms over the past years that have brightened Greece's economic outlook, and consequently, its prospective business environment. This also follows our recent sovereign rating action "Greece Upgraded To 'BB' On Improved Governance Effectiveness; Outlook Positive," published April 23, 2021.
- Revised the regional risk assessment on Eastern Europe to '4' (moderately high risk) from '5' (high risk) as a result of the revision of our country risk assessment on Greece.
About Country Risk Assessments
We define "country risk" as the broad range of economic, institutional, financial market, and legal risks that arise from doing business with or in a specific country and can affect a nonsovereign entity's credit quality. The credit risk for every rated entity and transaction is influenced to varying degrees by these types of country-specific risks. The factors we evaluate are economic risk, institutional and governance effectiveness risk, financial system risk, and payment culture/rule of law risk (see chart 1).
Chart 1
Our country risk assessments rank country risk on a scale of '1' (very low risk) to '6' (very high risk). For corporate, infrastructure, and insurance entities, the country risk assessment combines with our industry risk and competitive position assessments to produce the business risk assessment (see "Insurers Rating Methodology," published July 1, 2019 and "Corporate Methodology," published Nov. 19, 2013 on RatingsDirect). Country risk is also considered in project finance transactions (see "Project Finance Construction Methodology," published Nov. 15, 2013.
Our use of the country risk assessments in other sectors will be governed by the rating criteria for those sectors and for other asset classes. However, they do not affect our methodology for considering country risk for banks, found in "Banking Industry Country Risk Assessment Methodology And Assumptions," published Nov. 9, 2011.
Appendix: Latest Country Risk Scores
Table 1
Country Risk Assessments By Group And Country As Of April 23, 2021 | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
--Ranging from Group '1' (lowest risk) to Group '6' (highest risk)-- | |||||
Very low risk (1) | Low risk (2) | Intermediate risk (3) | Moderately high risk (4) | High risk (5) | Very high risk (6) |
Australia | Austria | Abu Dhabi | Bahamas | Albania | Algeria |
Canada | Belgium | Bermuda | Botswana | Azerbaijan | Angola |
Denmark | France | Cayman Islands | Brazil | Bahrain | Argentina |
Finland | Hong Kong | Chile | Bulgaria | Bangladesh | Belize |
Germany | Iceland | Czech Republic | China | Barbados | Burkina Faso |
Luxembourg | Ireland | Estonia | Colombia | Belarus | Congo (Republic of) |
Netherlands | Japan | Israel | Costa Rica | Bolivia | Congo (Democratic Republic of) |
Norway | New Zealand | Lithuania | Croatia | Bosnia and Herzegovina | Ecuador |
Singapore | South Korea | Macau | Curacao | Cambodia | Eritrea |
Sweden | U.K. | Malaysia | Cyprus | Dominican Republic | Gabon |
Switzerland | Malta | Dubai | Egypt | Iraq | |
U.S. | Portugal | Greece | El Salvador | Lebanon | |
Qatar | Hungary | Ethiopia | Mauritania | ||
Slovakia | India | Georgia | Mozambique | ||
Slovenia | Indonesia | Ghana | Nicaragua | ||
Spain | Italy | Grenada | Nigeria | ||
Taiwan | Kuwait | Guatemala | Pakistan | ||
United Arab Emirates | Latvia | Honduras | Papua New Guinea | ||
Mauritius | Jamaica | Suriname | |||
Mexico | Jordan | Tanzania | |||
Morocco | Kazakhstan | Venezuela | |||
Oman | Kenya | Zambia | |||
Panama | Macedonia | Zimbabwe | |||
Peru | Maldives | ||||
Philippines | Marshall Islands | ||||
Poland | Moldova | ||||
Ras Al Khaimah | Mongolia | ||||
Romania | Paraguay | ||||
Saudi Arabia | Russia | ||||
Serbia | Senegal | ||||
Sharjah | Sri Lanka | ||||
South Africa | Tunisia | ||||
Thailand | Turkey | ||||
Trinidad and Tobago | Uganda | ||||
Turks and Caicos | Ukraine | ||||
Uruguay | Uzbekistan | ||||
Vietnam |
Table 2
Regional Risk Assessments As Of April 23, 2021* | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Region | Weighted-average country risk | |||
Europe, the Middle East, and Africa | ||||
Western Europe | 1 | |||
Southern Europe | 4 | |||
Western and Southern Europe | 2 | |||
Eastern Europe | 4 | |||
Central Europe | 4 | |||
Eastern Europe and Central Asia | 5 | |||
Africa | 5 | |||
Middle East | 4 | |||
The Americas | ||||
North America | 1 | |||
Latin America | 4 | |||
Central America | 5 | |||
The Caribbean | 5 | |||
Asia-Pacific | ||||
Asia-Pacific | 4 | |||
Central Asia | 4 | |||
East Asia | 3 | |||
Australia and New Zealand | 1 | |||
*See Section C of the "Corporate Methodology" criteria article for further details on how regional scores are derived. |
Related Criteria And Research
For a fuller understanding of our country risk assessment criteria and other relevant publications, please see the following articles published on RatingsDirect.
Related criteria
- Insurers Rating Methodology, July 1, 2019
- Sovereign Rating Methodology, Dec. 18, 2017
- Country Risk Assessment Methodology And Assumptions, Nov. 19, 2013
- Corporate Methodology, Nov. 19, 2013
- Ratings Above The Sovereign--Corporate And Government Ratings: Methodology And Assumptions, Nov. 19, 2013
- Project Finance Construction Methodology, Nov. 15, 2013
- Banking Industry Country Risk Assessment Methodology And Assumptions, Nov. 9, 2011
Related research
- Country Risk Assessments Update: May 2020, May 11, 2020
- Country Risk Assessments Update Following Recent Changes On Ecuador, March 31, 2020
- Country Risk Assessments Update: March 2020, March 20, 2020
- Country Risk Assessments Update: January 2020, Jan. 23, 2020
- Country Risk Assessments Update: December 2019, Dec. 18, 2019
- Country Risk Assessments Update: October 2019, Oct. 11, 2019
- Country Risk Assessments Update Following Recent Changes On Argentina, Sept. 6, 2019
- Country Risk Assessments Update: September 2019, Sept. 2, 2019
- Country Risk Assessments Update Following Recent Changes On Indonesia And The Philippines, May 31, 2019
- Country Risk Assessments Update: May 2019, May 16, 2019
- Country Risk Assessments Update: February 2019, Feb. 18, 2019
- Country Risk Assessments Update: November 2018, Nov. 23, 2018
- Country Risk Assessments Update: October 2018, Oct. 24, 2018
- Country Risk Assessments Update: September 2018, Sept. 6, 2018
- Country Risk Assessments Update: July 2018, July 26, 2018
- Country Risk Assessments Update: June 2018, June 11, 2018
- Country Risk Assessments Update: January 2018, Jan. 26, 2018
- Country Risk Assessments Update: October 2017, Oct. 31, 2017
- Country Risk Assessments Update: July 2017, July 31, 2017
- Country Risk Assessments Update: May 2017, May 23, 2017
- Country Risk Assessments Update: March 2017, March 24, 2017
- Country Risk Assessments Update: November 2016, Nov. 10, 2016
- Country Risk Assessments Update: August 2016, Aug. 26, 2016
- Country Risk Assessments Update Following The Recent Downgrade Of Turkey: July 2016, July 22, 2016
- Country Risk Assessments Update: July 2016, July 1, 2016
- Country Risk Assessments Update: April 2016, April 14, 2016
- Country Risk Assessments Update: December 2015, Dec. 21, 2015
- Country Risk Assessments Update: October 2015, Oct. 8, 2015
- Country Risk Assessments Update: July 2015, July 8, 2015
- Country Risk Assessments Update: May 2015, May 29, 2015
- Country Risk Assessments Update: February 2015, Feb. 27, 2015
- Country Risk Assessments Update: November 2014, Nov. 26, 2014
- Country Risk Assessments Update: August 2014, Aug. 29, 2014
- Country Risk Assessments Update: May 2014, May 14, 2014
- Country Risk Assessments Update: February 2014, Feb. 11, 2014
This report does not constitute a rating action.
Primary Credit Analyst: | Timucin Engin, Dubai + 905306817943; timucin.engin@spglobal.com |
Secondary Contacts: | Andreas Kindahl, Stockholm (46) 8-440-5907; andreas.kindahl@spglobal.com |
Pablo F Lutereau, Buenos Aires (54) 11-4891-2125; pablo.lutereau@spglobal.com | |
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Candela Macchi, Buenos Aires (54)-11-4891-2110; candela.macchi@spglobal.com |
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