Sovereign risk analysts participating in Institutional Investor magazine's semiannual Country Credit survey see a better credit picture than they did six months ago. Participants awarded the 173 countries in the II survey an average credit rating of 42.7 on a scale of 100, up 1.1 point over the global average of 41.6 measured six months ago and 3.1 points higher than the September 2003 global average of 39.6. The results suggest that the world investment climate is on the rebound after the global recession brought on by the bursting Internet bubble, ballooning budget deficits and the economic strains of war and terrorism. Nonetheless, analysts are concerned about the risk to global creditworthiness presented by rising U.S.