Forbes, the American business magazine, has ranked Denmark as number 2 in its annual ranking of “Best Countries for Business”. Other Nordic countries – Sweden (7), Norway (8) and Finland (9) – were among the top ten.
The top country in this year’s rankings is New Zealand followed by Denmark, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Forbes determines best business countries by grading 141 nations on 11 different factors including property rights, innovation, taxes, technology, corruption and freedom. Finland scored especially high in property rights (1), innovation (3) and corruption (2).
According to Forbes, Denmark’s strength is in its technology, trade freedom and property rights. Its GDP per capita is one of the highest in the world at $59,684 last year, according to the World Bank (America’s was $48,442). However, like the U.S., Denmark is struggling to recover from the bursting of its real estate bubble. GDP rose 1.1% last year and contracted 0.4% in the second quarter of 2012. Yet, with its business-friendly climate, the country is poised to rebound stronger than most of Europe.
Forbes uses research and published reports from organisations such as the Central Intelligence Agency, World Bank and World Economic Forum when evaluating business climate and opportunities of different countries.
