how emerging market economies are classified
emerging market economies are classified in various ways levels of income quality of financial systems and growth rates are all popular criteria but the exact list of emerging market economies can vary depending on who you ask the international monetary fund imf classifies 20 countries as emerging markets morgan stanley capital international msci classifies 24 countries as emerging markets 12 standard and poor s s p ftse russell and dow jones also vary slightly in their classification of countries as emerging markets a country can be removed from the list by either upgrading it to developed nation status or downgrading it to a frontier nation at any of these institutions discretion developed nations may likewise be downgraded to an emerging market as was the case with greece frontier markets such as qatar and argentina may be upgraded to emerging markets 