BEIRUT: Lebanon has dropped two positions to rank 84th place worldwide and 11th place among 20 nations in the MENA region according to Euromoney magazine latest quarterly survey of the country risk among 184 states.

Lebanon came in 21st place among 44 upper middle income countries (UMICs) included in the December 2011 survey, as reported by Lebanon This Week, the economic publication of the Byblos Bank Group.

Lebanon ranked in 82nd place globally and in 11th place regionally in the previous survey, issued in September 2011. The survey evaluates individual country risk by assigning a weighting to six categories that cover political risks, economic performance, access to bank finance & capital markets, debt indicators, credit ratings, and structural assessment.

Globally, Lebanon ranked ahead of El Salvador, Azerbaijan and Macedonia, and came behind Vietnam, Serbia and Paraguay. It also ranked ahead of Azerbaijan and behind Serbia among the UMICs.

Lebanon’s rank on the political risks category improved by three spots from last September and on the structural assessments by two spots.

Lebanon’s rank on the credit rating, economic performance, and access to bank finance & capital markets remained unchanged. Euromoney changed the methodology to calculate the debt indicators category for high income countries, which prevents comparisons of overall country risk scores with previous quarters.

In parallel, Lebanon received a score of 42.67 points, below the global average of 42.69 points and the MENA average of 43.8 points.

But its score came above the Arab average score of 41.62 points and the UMICs’ average score of 40.98 points. Lebanon’s score remained unchanged on the credit ratings and access to bank finance & capital markets categories. Its score on the economic performance category grew by 0.8 percent and that on the political risks category increased by 0.7 percent; while its score on the structural assessments category decreased by 0.5 percent.

Lebanon ranked ahead of Papua New Guinea and behind Burkina Faso globally, while it came ahead of Algeria and behind Tunisia regionally on the political risks category.

It ranked ahead of Morocco and behind Armenia globally, while it came ahead of Morocco and behind Iraq regionally in economic performance.

In addition, Lebanon also came in ahead of Brazil and behind Thailand globally, and came ahead of all the Arab countries on the structural assessment category.

Lebanon ranked ahead of Georgia and behind Nicaragua globally, and came ahead of Iran and behind Tunisia regionally on the debt indicators category.