RTMon, 10 Dec 2018 16:59 UTC
© Sputnik / Vitaliy Timkiv / FileHorse race in Krasnodar, Russia
Despite years of EU and US sanctions, Russia has secured second place in the Bloomberg rating of emerging economies, behind Malaysia and just ahead of China.
The business news agency ranked 20 developing nations in its scorecard that includes metrics ranging from growth prospects to the state of the current account, sovereign credit ratings and stock and bond valuations. Russia gained 2.36 points on these criteria, while the only country topping it is Malaysia with 2.55. The Asian country has held on to the top spot on the list since the last ratings were published in June thanks to its current-account surplus, relatively stable economic growth outlook and valuations, according to Bloomberg.
© Bloomberg
Despite having climbed one place up since June, China lags behind Russia by nearly one point. The Philippines and Colombia round out the top five, while Turkey plunged to the bottom of the list, falling from fifth to the twentieth position.
The Russian economy's stronger position was earlier noted in the annual World Banks' Doing Business survey, which ranks 190 national economies based on 11 areas of business regulation. This year Russia rose to 31st place, four spots above last year's results. Russia's Minister for Economic Development Maxim Oreshkin said he was pleased with the news despite missing Russian President Vladimir Putin's target.
"If we analyze the situation as a whole, we achieved our target. 31st place isn't that far from 20th, especially if you take into account that we started from 124th," the minister
told business daily
Vedomosti. He added that the country will be working to reach the top 20 in six years.
Since 2014, Moscow has faced several rounds of Western sanctions, both from the EU and the US. Russia has been accused of involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine and annexing Crimea, despite the region's referendum to reunify with Russia. More recently, Washington accused Russia of meddling in the 2016 US presidential elections. While presenting no concrete evidence, the US has imposed several rounds of sanctions, including against major Russian companies and senior government officials.
Comment: More from
Bloomberg:
Turkey has tumbled to bottom of the emerging-market pile, according to a Bloomberg analysis.
Ranked fifth out of 21 nations in a similar study six months ago, the country has slumped on a scorecard that includes metrics ranging from growth prospects to the state of the current account, sovereign credit ratings and stock and bond valuations.
Meanwhile Asia's economies, which have stronger buffers against headwinds like Federal Reserve policy tightening, outshone the rest, with Malaysia holding on to the No. 1 spot.
Key Insights
- Turkey's economy is forecast to grow 0.8 percent in 2019, down from an estimated 3.5 percent this year, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists. Inflation reached 25.2 percent in October, the highest level since 2003, eroding real yields
- Malaysia remained at the top of the list, thanks to its current-account surplus, relatively stable economic growth outlook and valuations. Data last week showed inflation came in at 0.6 percent in October from a year earlier, compared with its 10-year government bond yield of about 4.17 percent
- Four of the top six economies on the scorecard are from Asia, including China, the Philippines and Thailand. China and Thailand are drawing support from current-account surpluses, relatively strong growth and benign inflation. The Philippines' current-account deficit and high inflation rates are partly offset by growth of more than 6 percent
- "A closer attention is now paid to economic growth outlooks of each emerging economy amid successive rate hikes," said Tsutomu Soma, general manager of the investment trust and fixed-income department at SBI Securities Co. in Tokyo. "Investors are also deciphering how each country is impacted by the U.S.-China trade frictions. They will continue to be more selective with their investments given such circumstances."
If no, maybe one should be put together.
Shalom