South Africa has been named as the highest rated economy and the best place for business investments on the African continent by firm Grant Thornton
According to the research, the South African economy has managed to remain stable despite hits to the mining and agricultural sectors in 2012.
The report, titled Emerging Markets Opportunity Index: High Growth Economies, has ranked South Africa 14th out of the 27 largest emerging economies surveyed in terms of their potential for business investment.
The report included data from Grant Thornton’s International Business Report (IBR) and research from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations Human Development report, with key indicators such as the economic size, population, wealth, involvement in world trade, growth prospects and levels of development of each country.
The report said, “South Africa has climbed one place to 14th in terms of global rankings in the emerging economies survey, maintaining its position as the highest ranked African economy, ahead of Nigeria which climbed nine places to 17th position.”
The only other two African countries to be ranked in the Emerging Markets Opportunity Index were Egypt at number 22 and Algeria at number 26.
South Africa is the only African country to be ranked in the top 15 emerging economies worldwide.
The country’s fellow BRICS members, China, India, Russia, and Brazil ranked in the first four positions, respectively.
Grant Thornton South Africa national chairperson Deepak Nagar said, “Although recent events in the mining sector have hurt our country’s reputation as a destination of choice for foreign direct investment (FDI), there are significant benefits that continue to attract investors.”
Nagar added, “Nigeria is growing in strength day by day, if we continue to have problems internally and the government doesn’t get things right, very soon Nigeria will overtake us.
“With Nigeria improving its ranking by nine places since the previous survey, South Africa will need to improve its competitive edge to maintain its leading ranking in the years to come.”
