Shadow Sovereign Ratings

Abstract

Sovereign ratings are a necessary condition for countries to fully access international capital. Even if the sovereign government is not issuing bonds, the sovereign rating often acts as a ceiling for the private sector and can influence its international capital market access. However, 58 developing countries are still not rated by Standard and Poors, Moodys, and Fitch, the three international credit rating agencies. This premise presents an exercise to predict shadow sovereign ratings to estimate where unrated countries would lie on the credit spectrum if they were rated. Contrary to popular perception, unrated countries are not necessarily at the bottom of the rating spectrum.AAA, credit ratings, moody's, fitch, standard and poors, credit, credit ratings, World Bank, developing countries, soverign debt