Thinking of investing in emerging market equities?

I am.  In particular I've been eyeing Mexico's Banco Compartamos because of its business fundamentals.  As I put this in the context of the broader economy I thought about the usefulness of conventional tools to measure the health of emerging economies.

In this article, The Economist highlights the importance of looking at a country's "business and bank debt," rather than just "government debt" to assess it's financial vulnerability.  The table here shows the ranking of emerging markets as of February 2009 based on these broader rations.  If you are contemplating international equities, I suggest you read this.