TheCheckPoints - Georgia’s risks high in the OECD Country Risk Classification
Interview with George Welton, Executive Director of AmCham;
OECD country risk classification classifies Georgia’s risk as high already for 16 years since 2007 without change.
The country risk classifications are meant to reflect country risk. Under the Participants’ system, country risk encompasses transfer and convertibility risk (i.e. the risk a government imposes capital or exchange controls that prevent an entity from converting local currency into foreign currency and/or transferring funds to creditors located outside the country) and cases of force majeure (e.g. war, expropriation, revolution, civil disturbance, floods, earthquakes).
According to the OECD methodology, the country risk classifications are not sovereign risk classifications and therefore should not be compared with the sovereign risk classifications of private credit rating agencies (CRAs). Conceptually, they are more similar to the "country ceilings" that are produced by some of the major CRAs.
During the last Investors’ Council meeting in Georgia the American Chamber of Commerce - AmCham - activated this issue saying that investors are troubled by the low assessment in the index. The countries are assessed on the 0 to 7 scale; where 0 is the best score and 7 is the lowest. Georgia maintains 6 as its score for consecutive 16 years already since 2007.
➡George Welton - Executive Director of AmCham;
➡Elene Kvanchilashvili - Author & Host;
