The top economic growth and fiscal performances in 2007 are likely to be from countries outside the ranks of the most developed Western nations, according to a new set of sovereign risk forecasts from Standard & Poor's Ratings Services.

In saying that, S and P say, "in terms of government debt or asset levels in either the fiscal or external accounts, the top of the rankings will remain relatively stable in 2007, dominated by major commodity exporters (especially the Gulf states and Norway), small and wealthy financial centers (Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, and the Isle of Man), and fiscally parsimonious Singapore".


They say, in a series of reports on the economic and fiscal trends in the 113 jurisdictions they rate world wide that the U.S. is set to drop out of the 10 rated countries with the highest GDP per capita in 2007. Russia will continue its star performance of recent years, becoming one of the 10 largest economies (as measured by GDP), moving up from 18 as recently as 2000.