52 Out Of 68 Belt & Road National Economies Improved In 2019

Euromoney have just released their Belt & Road Results Index for Q3 2019, and reported that out of 68 national economies that have signed up to the Belt & Road Initiative, 52 of them have seen rising GDP and/or improving investor climates.

The Euromoney Belt and Road Index combines International Monetary Fund (IMF) GDP figures with investment climate (IC) scores sourced from economists and political experts who ranked countries on the Euromoney Country Risk platform. The index therefore combines qualitative, crowd-sourced opinion with quantitative data. Using these sources Euromeny aims to provide a clear and credible index representing the politico-economic environment and investment climate.

Naturally, the economic performance of the countries concerned will be subject to many factors, with the Belt & Road Initiative just one. This means the results are indicative rather than actual in terms of measuring BRI impact. However they also illustrate the probability that Chinese diplomats have also been scanning the numbers – and been largely successful in identifying both where needs are and which emerging economies are worth investing in.

Concerning Euromoney’s 2019 Q3 results, the top five performers are, in order, Ethiopia, Maldives, Nepal, Laos and Bangladesh. Other countries on the rise are Serbia, the United Arab Emirates, Madagascar and Tajikistan.

As a general rule of thumb, Euromoney’s work suggests that over the year, Asia and the Middle East are showing substantial improvement measured against 2018, year-on-year, whereas Africa and Central and Eastern Europe are both marked down.

The complete results can be viewed, courtesy of Euromoney, here.

Related Reading

• The Asia Society “Navigating The Belt And Road” Report
• China’s Overseas Free Trade Zones & Industrial Parks
• China’s Belt & Road Initiative In The Middle East