Europe least risky region for business: FM Global

Norway leads the 2019 Global FM Resilience Index Ranking, maintaining the top spot for the fifth consecutive year. The Nordic country ranked in the top 10 for the following categories: control of corruption, political stability, economic productivity, corporate governance, low natural hazard exposure, and economic vulnerability to oil shock. Denmark was in second place.

The US was the only non-European country to rank in the top 10, one place above the UK, which retained 10th place. However, the UK fell eight places in the ‘political risk’ category, amid the uncertainty surrounding Brexit negotiations.

Rwanda was the highest climber in the 2019 index, rising 35 places from 2018 to rank 72nd. This can be attributed to an improvement in its supply chain and corporate governance. In the economic ranking, Rwanda rose from 123rd place in to 55th place in 2019. The country's greenfield FDI increased by 156% year on year in 2018, receiving $223.3m, according to greenfield investment monitor fDi Markets.

At the bottom of the overall ranking, the three ‘riskiest’ countries remained unchanged from last year. Lowest ranked is Haiti (130th), where 80% of residents live in poverty as the country struggles with a major fuel and energy supply problem. Venezuela was second worst, due to its high levels of corruption alongside exposure to natural hazards, and economic dependency on oil, said FM Global. Despite Ethiopia reaching a peace agreement with neighbouring Eritrea, and having increased government emphasis on political liberalisation, the country ranked third from the bottom.

In terms of cyber security, the five bottom-ranked countries were located in the Arabian peninsula (Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar) for the second year in a row. The January hacking of Dubai’s ride-hailing app Careem reiterates the risk of cyber-attacks in the region, with the information of 14 million customers and employees being exposed.

FM Global’s Resilience Index combines the core drivers of enterprise resilience so that companies, especially foreign investors, can evaluate their global exposure to risk. It is a data-driven tool that ranks over 130 countries, and evaluates more than 100,000 locations according to their risk of doing business there.