This article presents S&P Global Ratings' country risk assessments as of Oct. 24, 2024. We currently maintain 143 assessments using the criteria in "Country Risk Assessment Methodology And Assumptions," published Nov. 19, 2013, on Ratings Direct (see table 1 in the Appendix).
Latest Country Risk Actions
Since we last published this report on Sept. 10, 2024, we have:
- Revised our country risk assessment on the Dominican Republic to '4' (moderately high risk) from '5' (high risk). This reflects our view of the country's improving rule of law and its efforts in fighting corruption over the past years.
- Revised our regional risk assessment on the Caribbean to '4' (moderately high risk) from '5' (high risk) as a result of the above change on the Dominican Republic.
We do not expect any rating action as a result of these changes.
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 non-sovereign 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 Jan. 7, 2024, on Ratings Direct). Country risk is also considered in project finance transactions (see "General Project Finance Rating Methodology," published Dec. 14, 2022).
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 Dec. 9, 2021.
Appendix: Latest Country Risk Scores
Table 1
Country risk assessments by group and country as of Oct. 24, 2024 | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
--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 | Armenia | Angola |
Denmark | France | Cayman Islands | Brazil | Azerbaijan | Argentina |
Finland | Hong Kong | Chile | Bulgaria | Bahrain | Belarus |
Germany | Iceland | Czech Republic | China | Bangladesh | Belize |
Luxembourg | Ireland | Estonia | Colombia | Barbados | Bolivia |
Netherlands | Japan | Israel | Costa Rica | Benin | Burkina Faso |
Norway | New Zealand | Italy | Croatia | Bosnia and Herzegovina | Congo (Republic of) |
Singapore | South Korea | Latvia | Curacao | Cambodia | Congo (Democratic Republic of) |
Sweden | U.K. | Lithuania | Cyprus | Cote d'Ivoire | Ecuador |
Switzerland | Macau | Dominican Republic | Egypt | El Salvador | |
U.S. | Malaysia | Dubai | Ghana | Eritrea | |
Malta | Georgia | Grenada | Ethiopia | ||
Portugal | Greece | Guatemala | Gabon | ||
Qatar | Hungary | Honduras | Gambia (The) | ||
Slovakia | India | Jamaica | Iraq | ||
Slovenia | Indonesia | Kazakhstan | Lebanon | ||
Spain | Jordan | Kenya | Madagascar | ||
Taiwan | Kuwait | Maldives | Mauritania | ||
United Arab Emirates | Mauritius | Marshall Islands | Mozambique | ||
Uruguay | Mexico | Moldova | Nigeria | ||
Morocco | Mongolia | Pakistan | |||
Oman | Nicaragua | Papua New Guinea | |||
Panama | North Macedonia | Russia | |||
Peru | Paraguay | Sierra Leone | |||
Philippines | Rwanda | Sri Lanka | |||
Poland | Senegal | Suriname | |||
Ras Al Khaimah | Tunisia | Tanzania | |||
Romania | Turkiye | Togo | |||
Saudi Arabia | Uganda | Ukraine | |||
Serbia | Uzbekistan | Zambia | |||
Sharjah | Vietnam | Zimbabwe | |||
South Africa | |||||
Thailand | |||||
Trinidad and Tobago | |||||
Turks and Caicos |
Table 2
Regional risk assessments as of Oct. 24, 2024* | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Region | Weighted-average country risk | |||
Europe, the Middle East, and Africa | ||||
Western Europe | 1 | |||
Southern Europe | 3 | |||
Western and Southern Europe | 2 | |||
Eastern Europe | 4 | |||
Central Europe | 4 | |||
Eastern Europe and Central Asia | 6 | |||
Africa | 5 | |||
Middle East | 4 | |||
The Americas | ||||
North America | 1 | |||
Latin America | 4 | |||
Central America | 5 | |||
The Caribbean | 4 | |||
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 Ratings Direct.
Related Criteria
Corporate, infrastructure, and financial services ratings
- Corporate Methodology, Jan. 7, 2024
- General Project Finance Rating Methodology, Dec. 14, 2022
- Banking Industry Country Risk Assessment Methodology And Assumptions, Dec. 9, 2021
- Financial Institutions Rating Methodology, Dec. 9, 2021
- Methodology And Assumptions For Rating Aircraft-Backed Debt And Enhanced Equipment Trust Certificates, May 26, 2021
- Insurers Rating Methodology, July 1, 2019
- Methodology: Jurisdiction Ranking Assessments, Jan. 20, 2016
- Country Risk Assessment Methodology And Assumptions, Nov. 19, 2013
- Ratings Above The Sovereign--Corporate And Government Ratings: Methodology And Assumptions, Nov. 19, 2013
Structured finance ratings
- Global Trade Receivable Methodologies And Assumptions, June 29, 2021
- Incorporating Sovereign Risk In Rating Structured Finance Securities: Methodology And Assumptions, Jan. 30, 2019
Sovereign and public finance ratings
- U.S. Municipal Water, Sewer, And Solid Waste Utilities: Methodology And Assumptions, April 14, 2022
- Methodology For Rating Public And Nonprofit Social Housing Providers, June 1, 2021
- U.S. Municipal Retail Electric And Gas Utilities: Methodology And Assumptions, Sept. 27, 2018
- U.S. And Canadian Not-For-Profit Acute Care Health Care Organizations, March 19, 2018
- Sovereign Rating Methodology, Dec. 18, 2017
- U.S. Public Finance Charter Schools: Methodology And Assumptions, Jan. 3, 2017
General criteria
- Principles Of Credit Ratings, Feb. 16, 2011
- Criteria For Determining Transfer And Convertibility Assessments, May 18, 2009
Related Research
- Country Risk Assessments Update: September 2024, Sept. 10, 2024
This report does not constitute a rating action.
Primary Credit Analyst: | Mario Chakar, Dubai +971-4-372-7195; mario.chakar@spglobal.com |
Secondary Contact: | Pablo F Lutereau, Madrid + 34 (914) 233204; pablo.lutereau@spglobal.com |
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