STOXX Limited, the market-moving provider of innovative, tradable and global index concepts, today announced the results of the annual Emerging and Developed Markets Country Classification review. All changes will become effective at market open on Sep. 21, 2015.
Morocco is no longer classified as an emerging market. The country was unclassified because it did not meet the market liquidity screening requirement. The average trade value of its stocks over the last three available years was below 10 billion US dollars.
No other changes were made to the STOXX Emerging and Developed Markets Country Classification. The classification of emerging and developed markets in the STOXX index universe remains unchanged. Currently, out of the 65 countries in the STOXX index universe, 25 are classified as developed markets, and 19 are classified as emerging markets. A full list of countries including their classification can be found under the dedicated country classification section of the STOXX website:http://www.stoxx.com/indices/country_classification.html.
The STOXX market classification model relies on a completely rules-based and transparent methodology, and is the first such concept to exclude any subjective decisions from the process. The five criteria for the classification of a country as a developed marked include macroeconomic data, market cap, market liquidity, free currency convertibility on onshore and offshore markets, and restrictions on capital flows. The data source for the diverse criteria are highly renowned and independent global organizations (i.e. International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and PricewaterhouseCoopers).
For more information, please visit www.stoxx.com.
