Australia is rated eighth among the 44 countries surveyed in the latest BlackRock Sovereign Risk Index, which was released yesterday. Australia was in the same position in the previous quarterly survey.Investment manager BlackRock launched the index in June last year. It ranks sovereign credit risk according to a number of measures, including the level of public sector debt, financial sector health and vulnerability to external shocks.Norway holds the top ranking, followed by Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Canada, Chile and South Korea.Germany is ranked tenth, while the United States comes in at 13, China at 15 and the United Kingdom at 23.Those countries that moved up the index in the last quarter included China, Japan, Poland and Peru.Those that moved down included France and South Africa. Greece is at the bottom of the index.