The sovereign’s country risk score is still up on a year ago and its ranking unchanged in the ECR survey.

High-risk sovereign rides trend improvement on the back of stabilizing political and security situation, boosting economic prospects.

Notwithstanding the recent rise in its government bond yields, Italy still ranks higher than Spain in Euromoney’s Country Risk Survey, despite the country’s uncertain political outlook.

The triple threat of a high debt burden, low FX reserves and political instability weighs on the sovereign’s risk score.

Kenya’s risks have eased since Q2 in response to the calm electoral process in March. However, the rise in Kenya’s ECR score cannot hide the fact the sovereign and its fellow emerging SSA issuers are considered to have high-risk profiles, according to ECR experts – a discrepancy that could soon be factored into the region’s borrowing costs.

Argentina’s fall from grace and Mexico’s dazzling appeal have delivered a record score differential – an outcome that was predictable from score trends that emerged years ago and which is justified on every indicator of risk, according to Euromoney’s Country Risk survey.

Embattled country leads risk rise in Asia after US monetary shift.

ECR experts, led by Irish and Portuguese restructuring, have begun to upgrade bank stability assessments after sharp falls in the indicator scores since the credit crunch five to six years ago. However, the picture is blurred by scores still falling for many at-risk countries amid deep concerns about Cyprus, Malta and Slovenia.