A global economic downturn will generally have less impact on developing countries than on developed countries.

Countries that have larger commitments to provide health care and pay pensions to their citizens will have higher default risk than equivalent countries that do not.

Countries with a much higher government debt-to-GDP ratio will always have a higher default risk than countries with a lower debt-to-GDP ratio.

Sovereign defaults by developing countries will typically result in no recovery for investors holding bonds issued by that country.