List of Frontier Markets & Classifications

What Are Frontier Markets?

While there is no concrete definition, a Frontier Market can be described as a country that is more developed than a Lesser Developed Country (LDC) but has a more illiquid and less developed capital market than an Emerging Market. It is essentially an “emerging” Emerging Market.

Frontier Market Classifications

The three main index providers – MSCI, FTSE and S&P – all produce country classifications for a a range of countries and are usually placed in the following “buckets”: Developed Markets, Emerging Markets and Frontier Markets. Below is a table of all of the markets that are covered and how they are currently classified by each of the compilers:

Country	MSCI	FTSE	S&P
Argentina	Emerging	Frontier	Frontier
Bahrain	Frontier	Frontier	Frontier
Bangladesh	Frontier	Frontier	Frontier
Benin	Frontier	Unclassified	Unclassified
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Frontier (Standalone)	Unclassified	Unclassified
Botswana	Frontier (Standalone)	Frontier	Frontier
Bulgaria	Frontier (Standalone)	Frontier	Frontier
Burkina Faso	Frontier	Unclassified	Unclassified
Côte d’Ivoire	Frontier	Frontier	Frontier
Croatia	Frontier	Frontier	Frontier
Cyprus	Unclassified	Frontier	Frontier
Estonia	Frontier	Frontier	Frontier
Ghana	Frontier	Frontier	Frontier
Guinea-Bissau	Frontier	Unclassified	Unclassified
Iceland	Frontier (Standalone)	Frontier	Unclassified
Jamaica	Frontier (Standalone)	Unclassified	Frontier
Jordan	Frontier	Frontier	Frontier
Kazakhstan	Frontier	Frontier	Frontier
Kenya	Frontier	Frontier	Frontier
Kuwait	Emerging	Secondary Emerging	Frontier
Latvia	Unclassified	Frontier	Frontier
Lebanon	Frontier	Unclassified	Frontier
Lithuania	Frontier	Frontier	Frontier
Macedonia	Unclassified	Frontier	Unclassified
Mali	Frontier	Unclassified	Unclassified
Malta	Frontier (Standalone)	Unclassified	Unclassified
Mauritius	Frontier	Frontier	Frontier
Mongolia	Unclassified	Unclassified	Unclassified
Morocco	Frontier	Frontier	Frontier
Namibia	Unclassified	Unclassified	Frontier
Niger	Frontier	Unclassified	Unclassified
Nigeria	Frontier	Frontier	Frontier
Oman	Frontier	Frontier	Frontier
Palestine	Frontier (Standalone)	Unclassified	Unclassified
Panama	Frontier (Standalone)	Unclassified	Frontier
Romania	Frontier	Secondary Emerging	Frontier
Senegal	Frontier	Unclassified	Unclassified
Serbia	Frontier	Frontier	Unclassified
Slovakia	Unclassified	Frontier	Frontier
Slovenia	Frontier	Frontier	Frontier
Sri Lanka	Frontier	Frontier	Frontier
Tanzania	Unclassified	Frontier	Unclassified
Togo	Frontier	Unclassified	Unclassified
Trinidad and Tobago	Frontier (Standalone)	Unclassified	Frontier
Tunisia	Frontier	Frontier	Frontier
Ukraine	Frontier (Standalone)	Unclassified	Unclassified
Vietnam	Frontier	Frontier	Frontier
Zambia	Unclassified	Unclassified	Frontier
Zimbabwe	Frontier (Standalone)	Unclassified	Unclassified

Index providers typically review the country classifications on a periodic basis. Thetable below shows the countries that are currently being reviewed by MSCI, FTSE and S&P for reclassification (either an upgrade or downgrade):

Country	Index	Type	Prev Classification	Next Classification	Date
Kuwait	MSCI	Consultation	Frontier	Emerging	Dec-19
Iceland	MSCI	Consultation	Frontier (Standalone)	Frontier	Nov-19
Argentina	S&P	Watchlist	Frontier	Emerging	Aug-20
Romania	S&P	Watchlist	Frontier	Emerging	Aug-20
Vietnam	S&P	Watchlist	Frontier	Emerging	Aug-20
Romania	FTSE	Confirmed	Frontier	Secondary Emerging	Sep-20
Tanzania	FTSE	Confirmed	Unclassified	Frontier	Sep-20
Vietnam	FTSE	Watchlist	Frontier	Secondary Emerging	Sep-20