Serbia ranks 54th in global investment risk index - ahead of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but behind other ex-Yugoslav republics

Henley & Partners, in cooperation with the analytical platform AlphaGeo, has published a new Global Investment Risk and Resilience Index - an index that ranks countries around the world according to their societies’ resilience to economic, political, technological and climate shocks. Serbia ranked 54th out of 102 ranked countries and territories on this list, with a score of 64.05 points.

The authors of the study state that the ability to adapt to change has become a key measure of a country’s stability - more important, they claim, than even the size of the economy or the type of government. While risks have been measured and ranked in detail for years, the resilience of societies has not had a similar, equally rigorous measuring tool until now. The new index attempts to change that by combining indicators that have so far been separately monitored by central banks (monetary and financial developments), public policy analysts (political and socio-economic factors) and engineers (infrastructure capacity) - into a single framework that includes currency stability, inflation, regulatory environment, governance, social progress, technological innovation and climate adaptation.

The result, as the authors point out, shows that resilience is not the privilege of only traditionally stable, wealthy countries - the list was topped by countries from different continents, large and small.

How countries of former SFRY rank

All former Yugoslav republics were on the list of 102 countries, but with very different positions. The ranking is as follows:

Rank Country Score
18th Slovenia 75.65
31st Croatia 69.78
49th North Macedonia 64.96
52nd Montenegro 64.78
54th Serbia 64.05
57th Bosnia and Herzegovina 63.29

Slovenia is also by far the best ranked country in the region according to this index – its 75.65 points place it in the top twenty countries in the world, alongside developed economies such as the United Kingdom (19th place) and South Korea (20th place). Croatia, as a member of the EU and the eurozone, is also significantly ahead of Serbia, in 31st place, with a score that is five points higher.

North Macedonia, in 49th place, stands out as a country that - without EU membership - manages to achieve a slightly higher resilience score.

Montenegro, in 52nd place with 64.78 points, is just behind Costa Rica (51st place, with the same score rounded to 64.78) and ahead of Armenia (53rd place). The difference with Serbia, which ranks 54th, is only 0.73 points - making the two countries practically equal in terms of the index. Bosnia and Herzegovina is the only former Yugoslav republic to rank below both, in 57th place.

The data shows a clear division within the region: Slovenia and Croatia, as members of the European Union, maintain a significant advantage in terms of resilience to global shocks, while North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina are in a much tighter group, with differences of only a few points.

For investors, this ranking suggests that the Western Balkans region, although heterogeneous, is still lagging behind its EU neighbors, which have undergone a longer process of institutional harmonization. As the index authors emphasize, it is societies that invest in adaptability - whether through strengthening institutions, economic diversification or climate adaptation - that attract more investment and migration in the long term, and achieve higher economic growth.

Incidentally, with EUR 142 million, Serbia is the largest single institutional investor in Montenegro, ahead of Turkey and Germany, with investments ranging from trade to banking.

Henley and Partners

AlphaGeo

Global Investment Risk and Resilience Index