Investment Climate

NATIONAL RESEARCH UNIVERSITY HIGHER SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS

School of World Economy and International Affairs

Foreign Languages Department

Investment Climate Evaluation: Rating Agencies

Olga V. Krechetova

group 409

Academic Advisors

Sergey N. Lavrov

Natalia E. Makarova

MOSCOW 2011

Introduction…………………………………………………………3

1. Investment climate

1) Foreign Investment’s role in economies……….4

2) Definition of investment climate………………4

3) Types of risk…………………………………...5

2. Rating agencies

1) Types of ratings………………………………..6

2) Example - International Country Risk Guide….8

Conclusions………………………………………………………….10

References ………………………………………………………….12

Appendix …………………………………………………………...13

Introduction

In the era of globalization foreign direct investment (FDI) plays a crucial role in development of countries worldwide. FDI is a guarantee of sustainable economic growth in the future. And to attract investments countries have to create favourable conditions for investors. In other words, they have to improve their investment climate. But to make a decision on whether to invest in a country, or not multinational corporations, institutional investors, banks and other players on the global market need information about the country, specifically about its investment climate.

As the main subject of this research are investment climate in a country and its importance in the countries development. The main topic is the evaluation of the investment climate by rating agencies. The thesis of this paper asserts that rating agencies are very important in the process of investment climate evaluation, both for countries and potential investors, because they provide comprehensive and reliable information about the investment climate in these countries. And in an information society as we all are living, it is difficult to overestimate their role. This thesis is especially important and relevant...