Israel Struggles With Upgrade From Emerging to Developed Market

In the minds of many investors, Israel left the ranks of emerging markets in 2010. In May of that year, MSCI, the New York-based firm that builds popular investing indexes, added the country to its benchmark of developed nations. The promotion was a sign of Israel’s success: Its economy had recovered from the financial crisis faster than most advanced nations, and foreign money was pouring into its stock market. In 2009, Israel’s benchmark TA-25 stock index gained 75 percent. “We’re playing with the big boys now,” said Ester Levanon, then the chief executive officer of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), after winning MSCI’s approval.

Three years later, the reclassification is looking like a disaster. Before 2010, Israel accounted for 2.7 percent of the now $7 trillion MSCI Emerging Markets Index, giving it an outsized share of investor money allocated toward developing economies. Now, it makes up just 0.2 percent of the MSCI World Index, which has a cumulative market value of more than $33 trillion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.