The British weekly magazine The Economist has analysed the wealthiest countries and their response to the epidemic. The magazine notes that the epidemic has shuffled the cards on the world economy map and created new winners as well as new losers, and predicts that the difference between the two groups of countries will only grow in the coming years.
Slovenia ranked second among the 23 selected members of the Organization for Economic Co‑operation and Development (OECD), according to the ranking prepared by The Economist on how well countries have been dealing with the economic aspects of the pandemic. According to five criteria chosen by The Economist, the only country ranked above Slovenia was Denmark.
Slovenia is thus second among the winners, mostly due to the growth in household income and in the value of companies. According to the calculations of The Economist, the household income per person in Slovenia increased by ten per cent in the observed period, while the value of companies on the regulated capital markets increased by more than one third. Slovenia also ranks among the most successful countries with regard to public finance or the growth in debt, which increased by 7.4 percentage points relative to the GDP.
Slovenia's credit ratings also remained stable in the last two years. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, credit rating agencies Standard & Poor's Global, Fitch Ratings and DBRS have confirmed the credit ratings assigned to Slovenia several times, while Moody's Investor Service even increased it in October 2020. In 2021, all four agencies confirmed their credit ratings of Slovenia. The stability of credit ratings during the pandemic indicates that Slovenia has the reputation of a stable and trustworthy country among investors.