In This Issue: Beyond BRIC: Growth Is Busting Out All Over: Standard & Poor's expects emerging markets and not just the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) to keep growing faster than developed economies, especially in terms of total GDP. But trade imbalances are endangering the world financial system.Among Central Europe's Big Four, Three Are Doing Just Fine: Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia should continue to expand at a good pace in 2007, but Hungary should start to feel the effects of a government deficit-cutting austerity plan. Credit Risk For Emerging Markets Sovereigns Falling For The Fifth Straight Year: Two-fifths of emerging market sovereigns are currently rated investment grade, the highest proportion in a decade. Despite a less benign external environment, sovereign upgrades should continue to exceed downgrades in the near term. Can Asia's Emerging Markets Still Cling To China's Coattails?: Strong expansion, continuing reform efforts, and improving creditworthiness have revitalized many Asian economies. A look at seven key emerging markets in Asia: Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. ASEAN Four Power Ahead, But Can They Keep Up The Pace?: We forecast healthy growth in 2007 and 2008 for Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand, but clouds are on the horizon. So, domestic demand will be more important than ever this year. Investigating Country Risk And Its Relationship To Sovereign Ratings In Latin America: The underlying overall country environment appears to be a relative strength in Uruguay, Jamaica, Grenada, Costa Rica, and to a lesser degree in Barbados. However it looks like a relative weakness in Brazil, Peru, and Colombia as well as in Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The Next Generation Of Securitization Markets Emerges: Securitization is starting to provide much-needed liquidity to developing nations seeking economic growth and stability. Structured Finance In Turkey: Existing-Asset Securitization Market On Track To Develop In 2007: Turkey shows strong potential for the development of an existing-asset-backed securities market. However, some obstacles still need to be addressed before market participants can tap into this potential. Why Emerging Markets Are Becoming A Key Ingredient In The Recipe For High Portfolio Returns: We've crunched the numbers behind the growth and will explain why emerging economies have attracted investment and should continue to do so for some time to come. High Commodity Prices: Hardly A Universal Boon For Africa: The evolution of the terms of trade and trade balances in sub-Saharan Africa may vary greatly from country to country, but for most countries they have been quite volatile. Recent And Expected FDI Trends In Emerging Market Economies: Global FDI inflows will keep increasing over the next few years. This reflects robust global growth, deepening of globalization trends, rising competition and subsequent pressures for mergers and acquisitions, and improvements in the business environments of many emerging market economies. Chile's Economic Growth And Fiscal Position: How Important Are They From A Ratings Perspective?: Standard & Poor's bases its positive outlook on Chile upon the expectation that the country's already-strong macroeconomic framework will continue to gradually improve, bringing additional stability to GDP performance over the medium and long term in line with that of higher rated credits. BRIC, But Not Investment Grade: Is Brazil On The Right Trajectory?: India, Russia, and China have much lower external vulnerabilities than Brazil. Higher sustained growth rates could support improvement in Brazil's sovereign creditworthiness and help it progress to investment grade, presumably through a sharper decline in government debt. Charting A Course To Investment Grade For Colombia Based On The Paths Of Five Comparable Sovereigns: Colombia is one of the few Latin American countries to have had an investment-grade rating, which it lost in 1999. The country's strong institutions, improving growth story, better external indicators, and declining debt to GDP ratio underpin the current rating and positive outlook. | 
