Ireland ‘third-safest country’ in the world for business

Ireland has been ranked as the third safest country in the world in which to do business, according to a new survey by international risk management and insurance company FM Global.

The study finds that Ireland is considerably more insulated from threats such as depressed oil prices, natural catastrophes and the spread of terrorism, than most other countries. In fact, only Switzerland and Norway are ranked higher for supply chain resilience.

The 2016 FM Global Resilience Index ranks 130 countries and territories according to nine drivers that can cause disruption. These include political risk, GDP per capita, oil intensity, exposure to natural hazards, control of corruption and quality of infrastructure.

This is the third time the annual rankings have been published. Last year, Ireland was placed in fourth spot, while in 2014, it was ranked fifth in the world.

According to the latest index, Ireland, along with Switzerland and Norway, offers a world-class resilient environment for business executives seeking to source product or locate facilities.

Ireland came first out of the 130 countries surveyed for risk quality, unchanged from last year. It jumped from 11th place to seventh for economic factors in the latest rankings, but scored less well for supply chain factors, coming in 25th spot, the same ranking as in 2015.

Oil-rich Kuwait and Colombia were among those to suffer the biggest declines in the rankings this year due to falling prices. Conversely, Armenia and Malawi were two of the biggest risers in the index due largely to their lack of exposure to the dynamics of the oil market.

Countries that experienced terrorist attacks such as Belgium, Pakistan, Ivory Coast and Turkey, were all impacted in this year’s rankings.

For the second consecutive year, Ukraine was among those countries with the biggest drop - falling to 125th spot from 107 a year earlier - due to the high degree of tension within the country as well as with Russia.

The lowest-ranked country overall was Venezuela for the second year in a row. It was followed in ascending order by the Dominican Republic, Kyrgyz Republic, Nicaragua, Mauritania, Ukraine, Egypt, Algeria, Jamaica and Honduras.

Top ten ranked nations

1. Switzerland

2. Norway

3. Ireland

4. Germany

5. Luxembourg

6 Netherlands

7. the Central United States*

8 Canada

9. Australia

10. Denmark.

* The US was segmented into three regions to reflect disparate natural hazards exposure