New country category 0 for Finnvera

The OECD Arrangement on officially supported export credits has recently been rewritten as regards country classification. Countries are classified into eight country risk categories (0-7). Minimum premium rates have been established for categories 1 through 7. In May 2004, Finnvera started to use a new country category, category 0.

Essentially, High Income OECD Countries are classified in Category 0. The level of country risk is considered to be negligible in these countries, and therefore they are not classified by the Group of Country Risk Experts and no minimum premium rates for political and sovereign risks have been established for them. Also other countries deemed to be of similar risk level may be classified in Category 0. The following countries are classified in Category 0:

Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Creece, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Gibraltar, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxemburg, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Vatican, United Kingdom, United States.