Botswana is the best place to invest in Africa

In just the past 12 months, quite a lot has changed in the global investing environment. Some struggling economies have found their feet, notably in Europe, while others around the world have fallen victim to conflict. A few have improved their economic institutions, too; neighbors Greece, Macedonia, and Turkey all bolstered legal protections for investors, and nearby Azerbaijan strengthened its property rights.

Thanks to the availability of new data, four countries joined the BPI this year: Cyprus, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Republic of Congo. It also lost a few: Benin and Tunisia (whose sovereign debts are no longer rated by Standard and Poor’s); and Ukraine (whose economic forecast from the International Monetary Fund is currently in flux).

Before I get to the results, I have three notes: In the 2013 edition, I used the International Property Rights Index as a gauge of the likelihood of government expropriation. The index is valuable, but covers fewer countries and does so more idiosyncratically than other sources. This year, I decided to use the property rights component of the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom. In the rankings below, I have recalculated the 2013 numbers using last year’s edition of the Heritage index. Also, the World Bank changed its methodology slightly for measuring protection of investors and then revised all previous years of data; these changes are reflected in the 2013 rankings as well. FULL STORY