Insights

Presidential elections in some of the world’s largest economies, the sovereign debt crisis and the US fiscal cliff have all contributed to a global sense of economic uncertainty. How are major and developing markets faring in the face of these developments and what does the year ahead have in store?

Last week, we released the results of the Grant Thornton Global Dynamism Index (GDI) 2013. This is the second year we have released these results. We are seeing the beginning of trends in the data but there was also some interesting movement up and down the rankings.

These are the results of the Grant Thornton Global Dynamism Index (GDI) 2013, an annual research project designed by the Economist Intelligence Unit, which ranks the development of the business growth environments of 60 of the world's largest economies over the past 12 months.

A lot has been written about auditor rotation over recent months, but in August, India became the latest major economy to actually enforce mandatory rotation. This is big news. And not just for us accountants.

This time last week I was interviewed by Bloomberg and CNBC to discuss a divergence in business optimism between China and the US revealed by our Q2 International Business Report (IBR). The results were surprising: Chinese business optimism is at an all-time low whilst their US peers are more optimistic than at any time since 2005.

The latest update from our International Business Report (IBR) provided some encouraging signs for the health of the global economy. On the back of easing demand conditions, both investment plans and business confidence are up.

On the one hand, the results from our once-every-two-years look at the world’s leading emerging markets were encouraging. Business leaders across the world are looking at international expansion opportunities.

Recovery from the financial crisis remains uncertain across both mature and emerging markets. During the past 12 months we have seen volatile commodity prices, disruptions in supply chains, political uprisings and natural disasters.

We believe that dynamic organisations need to apply both reason and instinct to decision making. Deciding which markets your business should operate in is no different.

In 1951, in the aftermath of the Second World War, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands came together to found the European Union.