Russia has jumped four places in a ranking of the world’s most valuable nation brands to sit in 14th position.
The nation brands index, compiled by Brand Finance, assess the value of Russia’s national brand at $960bn — up 16% on last year. Russia leapfrogged Switzerland and Mexico, and now lies behind the Netherlands, Australia and Spain just outside the top 10.
In the top three spots as the world’s most valuable national brands were the United States, China and Germany — unchanged from last year. Asian countries and developing markets rose fastest up the rankings, with the Chinese brand climbing in value by 40% to close the gap on the United States at the top.
Brand Finance calculates a country’s nation brand value through a combination of economic, reputational, corporate and institutional factors.
Globally, developing economies recorded significantly faster growth in their brand values, the report’s authors assessed. The average annual growth among developing economies was 13.9%, compared to 0.4% for developed economies.
Japan is a notable exception among the developed economies, with 26% growth, but was still only the 15th fastest-growing nation brand. More than half of the fastest climbers were from the Middle East and Africa.
“With the Western world seeing a real crisis of leadership on both sides of the Atlantic, the developing world is catching up,” said David Haigh, CEO of Brand Finance.
“Bolder, more agile, increasingly innovative African, Middle Eastern, Asian, and Latin American nation brands are racing ahead at breakneck speed, poised for further growth in the years to come.”
Although catching up, at $37.8 trillion the combined nation brand value of the 65 developing economies in the study remains far behind that of the 35 developed economies at $60.3 trillion.
Topping the ranking again this year, the nation brand value of the United States alone stands at $27.8 trillion.
Claiming second position, China recorded a 40% increase in brand value to $19.5 trillion. In top spot, the U.S. grew by 7% over the last 12 months, as the gap between the top two fell from $12 trillion to $8 trillion.
Although there were no new entrants to the top 10, India has made the largest jump, climbing from 9th to 7th on the back of a 19% increase in its estimated brand value.
This article first appeared in bne IntelliNews.
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