The index was created from CFOs’ stated intention to expand in specific countries. The arithmetic mean is based around 100 being the average intention to expand to all 20 countries listed.
The 2012 index reflects the themes in our survey report: the seven large, established markets of China, USA, Brazil, India, Germany, Russia and the UK are the ones that CFOs feel most comfortable investing in. In contrast to 2011, these seven countries all have expansion means of over 100. The other key differences noted since last year are that Brazil has moved from sixth to third place, Russia has risen from eighth to sixth place and France has dropped from seventh to thirteenth.