Israel's risk ranking on international financial markets is almost unchanged. Israel rose one place to 41st in the "Euromoney" Country Risk Index 2005 survey, with a score of 66.3 points out of a possible 100.
The survey was conducted around the time of Yasser Arafat's death in December 2004, before the Sharm el Sheikh summit and the resumption of the Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic and security talks. It is unclear whether Israel's ranking takes the disengagement plan into account.
"Euromoney" is optimistic about Israel's economic performance in the coming year. Nevertheless, Israel still does not receive as many points as it could in a number of categories:
- Political risks - Israel gets 15.6 points out of a possible 25.
- Economic performance - Israel gets 11.3 points out of a possible 25.
- Credit risk - Israel gets 6.5 points out of a possible 10.
- Financial access - Israel gets 4 points out of a possible 5.
- Access to international markets - Israel gets 1 point out of a possible 5.
- Risk of defaulting on loans - Israel gets 2.9 points out of a possible 5.
Israel gets full points only in three categories: Access to foreign banks (5 points); repayment of loans (10 points); public debt features (10 points).
"Euromoney" ranks Israel behind Estonia, Hungary, South Korea, Bahrain, the Czech Republic, Bahamas, Kuwait, and Cyprus. Israel is ahead of Saudi Arabia, Chile, Barbados, Poland, Slovakia, Mexico, China, Oman, Latvia, South Africa, Thailand, India, and Russia.
The top ten countries in the "Euromoney" Country Risk Index for 2005 are Norway, Switzerland Luxembourg, the US, Denmark, Sweden, the UK, Finland, Austria, and Ireland, with 93.3-99.5 points.
The bottom ten countries are Micronesia, Namibia, Burundi, Somalia, Nigeria, Congo, Cuba, Marshall Islands, Afghanistan, North Korea, and Iraq, with 1.9-22.5 points.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on March 15, 2005