Should You Invest in Europe Now? Top Rankings Signal Opportunity

According to the Global Opportunity Index (GOI) research by the Milken Institute, four of the top five locations for investors are in Europe.

Denmark topped the rankings this year, receiving the highest score on regulatory measures and business perception, a gauge of how easy it is to do business in a certain nation.

The index takes into account 100 variables that fall into five categories: international norms and policy, financial services, business perception, economic fundamentals, and institutional framework.

Global Opportunity Index Rankings and Insights

According to the latest Global Opportunity Index (GOI) report, Denmark secured the third position in terms of economic fundamentals, which encompass macroeconomic performance, workforce talent, and efforts toward building a resilient and sustainable economy and society.

The report outlines the top five countries deemed attractive by investors, with Denmark leading the list, followed by Sweden, Finland, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

This year, the United States jumped to the top of the institutional framework category, which measures the level of protection that a nation's institutions provide for the rights and assets of investors, moving up one notch to fourth place.

In the financial services category, which assesses a country's accessibility to financing as well as its whole financial system, the nation came in fifth place.

Finland, which finished third overall, received the highest ranking in the area of international standards and policy, which assesses a nation's economic openness as well as how closely its laws and regulations adhere to international norms for intellectual property protection and regulation.

Investment Trends in Emerging and Developing Asia

According to a report, emerging and developing Asia outperformed other regions within the same category, attracting over half (53.2%) of the funds directed towards emerging and developing countries between 2018 and 2022.

Maggie Switek, Senior Director of the research department at The Milken Institute, highlighted that despite the stability offered by advanced economies, investors are increasingly drawn to emerging and developing economies due to the potential for high-growth returns.

Malaysia emerged as the investor preference among Asian E&D economies, ranking 27th globally.

Among all E&D economies, it offers the "best investment conditions" and scores well on institutional frameworks, in part because of its "extremely strong investors' rights," according to Switek.

According to The New York Times, Malaysia packages 23 percent of all American chips and is currently the sixth-largest chip exporter in the world.

According to the research, all things considered, E&D areas "offer attractive opportunities to investors interested in emerging markets with favorable growth potential."

However, as U.S.-China tensions have increased, capital inflows to Asian emerging countries have decreased, falling by 75.4% in 2022, the paper stated.