rant Thornton has ranked the United States in 10th place among 50 national economies for growing businesses.
A new index dubbed the Grant Thornton Global Dynamism Index rated the U.S. and other countries using 22 different indicators of “dynamism,” defined as changes to the economy that have enabled recovery from the 2008-09 economic recession and are likely to lead to a fast rate of future growth. Key drivers include business operating environment, science and technology, labor and human capital, economics and growth and the financing environment.
Business growth fundamentals remain strong in many developed economies even as they struggle with mountains of debt, Grant Thornton noted. Singapore, Finland, Sweden and Israel are rated as the best countries for dynamic growing businesses, according to the GDI. The U.S. ranked eighth best for its financing environment, but did not rank inside the top 10 in the four other key categories.
“In comparison, U.S. business growth fundamentals are solid,” said Grant Thornton CEO Stephen Chipman in a statement. “A strong and stable legal system, access to capital, credit and a highly skilled diverse workforce are all key drivers of business location decisions. The ratings go well beyond basic GDP data. Rather than provide a measure of an economy’s success during a period of high economic turbulence, this iteration provides a true illustration of the strength of each economy as a place for dynamic businesses to flourish.”
More than 400 senior executives from a broad range of countries and industries were interviewed to determine which aspects of these attributes they deemed most important for business growth. This allowed for the weighting of each aspect according to its perceived relevance.
Here are the overall rankings:
1. Singapore 72.1
2. Finland 70.5
3. Sweden 69.6
4. Israel 69.3
5. Austria 66.1
6. Australia 65.6
7. Switzerland 65.1
8. South Korea 64.9
9. Germany 64.8
10. United States 64.1
A. Business operating environment
(Foreign trade and exchange regimes and controls; policy towards private enterprise and competition; political stability; and legal and regulatory risk)
1. Finland 94.2
2. Ireland 93.4
3. Sweden 92.8
4. Netherlands 91.5
5. Denmark 91.4
6. Canada 91.2
7. Australia 90.7
7. Luxembourg 90.7
9. New Zealand 90.4
10. Austria 90.1
B. Science and technology
(Broadband subscriber lines per 100 inhabitants; growth in broadband subscriber lines; R&D as % of GDP; total IT spending growth)
1. Israel 73.0
2. Finland 65.8
3. Sweden 64.9
4. South Korea 61.0
5. Switzerland 59.0
6. Japan 58.8
7. Denmark 56.4
8. Taiwan 53.9
9. Germany 53.5
10. UAE 53.2
C. Labor and human capital
(Labor productivity growth; unemployment; school life expectancy; % of population under 30.)
1. Argentina 72.5
2. Slovak Republic 72.4
3. Uruguay 69.0
4. China 67.4
5. New Zealand 65.6
6. South Korea 64.1
7. Australia 63.9
8. Norway 62.4
9. Indonesia 62.1
10. Taiwan 61.6
D. Financing environment
(Quality of overall financial regulatory system; access of firms to medium-term capital; growth in value of inward M&A deals; value of inward M&A deals; private sector credit as % of GDP; inward direct investment growth; corporate tax burden.)
1. Singapore 82.2
2. Finland 72.3
3. France 71.8
4. Austria 71.4
4. Chile 71.4
6. Poland 70.4
7. New Zealand 69.8
8. United States 69.5
9. Israel 68.3
10. Slovenia 67.6
E. Economics and growth
(Real GDP growth; private consumption per head; change in $ value of stock market index.)
1. Argentina 95.6
2. China 94.6
3. Uruguay 82.3
4. Chile 80.6
5. India 80.0
6. Indonesia 79.8
7. Nigeria 79.4
8. Turkey 78.0
9. Singapore 75.3
10. Colombia 73.8
10. Russia 73.8
The complete list of 50 countries is available at