The financial paper which ranked 66 countries that are relatively safe and are in distress based on four potential sources of peril including public debt, public and private foreign debt, borrowing cost and reserve cover, ranked Sri Lanka at 61, with it only being better than Angola, Bahrain, Zambia, Lebanon and Venezuela.
Botswana tops the list of countries with the strength of its indicators followed by Taiwan.
In South Asia, Bangladesh has been listed as the 9th strongest economy and has fared better than three of its South Asian neighbours — India (18th), Pakistan (43) and Sri Lanka.
According to The Economist, Russia, Peru, and the Philippines look relatively robust while 30 are in distress or flirting with it including Sri Lanka.
"COVID-19 hurts emerging economies by locking down their population, damaging their export earnings, and deterring foreign capital," The Economist said.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), emerging economies would need at least $2.5 trillion to weather the health crisis.
It said 66 economies need to find over $4 trillion to service their foreign debt and cover any current account deficits.
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