Vietnam top frontier market

February 09, 2012 | 17:28

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Vietnam ranked first in frontier markets in Bloomberg Market’s frontier markets survey.

The ranking, conducted by Bloomberg Market Magazine, included data for such as International Monetary Fund forecasts of GDP growth, inflation, government debt levels and investment and Bloomberg financial market data.

The frontier markets ranking included an additional variable - net energy imports as a percentage of all energy used.

Bloomberg also used World Bank to determine these countries’ vulnerability to volatile energy prices. Countries that rely heavily on energy exports or imports were considered higher risk and therefore earned fewer points for this category.

For the ranking, countries were awarded points based on their relative performance in each category. The worst performing country received a score of zero, while the best performing country received the maximum number of points assigned to that variable. Scores for all variables were summed, with a range for the final score being 0 to 100.

Vietnam with total score of 71.4 led the list of the most promising frontier markets.

The United Arab Emirates with 66.9 points was second, while Bulgaria and Romania with 61.4 tied for third place.

According to Bloomberg Market, despite an inflation rate that the IMF expects to be one of the highest among ranked countries between now and 2016, Vietnam came in first in part because of its rapid economic expansion.