Russia rose from the 7th to the 2nd place in the Bloomberg ranking of developing countries.

The ranking was compiled based on the 2018-2019 GDP growth forecast and other macroeconomic indicators, including current accounts, sovereign credit rating, foreign currency reserves, financial markets, etc. Russia scored 2.36 nominal points (against 0.88 the year before) and took the prestigious second place.

Malaysia remains first thanks to its current account surplus and a relatively stable economic growth forecast. China was ranked third. Four of the top six countries are in Asia, including China, the Philippines and Thailand. China and Thailand received experts’ support thanks to their current account surpluses, a relatively fast economic growth and low inflation. The Philippines’ current account deficit and high inflation rate are partly compensated by its economic growth rate of over 6%.

“A closer attention is now paid to economic growth outlooks of each emerging economy amid successive rate hikes” said Tsutomu Soma, general manager of the investment trust and fixed-income department at SBI Securities Co. in Tokyo.

Overall, Bloomberg analysts noted that the Asian economies with stronger buffers against “headwinds” (like Federal Reserve policy tightening) outperformed the others, with Malaysia topping the list. Experts did not provide any more detailed evaluations regarding Russia.

Interestingly, Turkey tumbled from the 5th to the 20th place, the lowest place in the ranking.