Sri Lanka among top 20 rising stars of world trade

October, 11, 2019

A new report from Standard Chartered, titled ‘Trade20: The rising stars of global trade’ has ranked Sri Lanka among the top 20 rising stars of global trade. 

The Trade20 index, which identifies the 20 rising stars of trade, places  Côte d’Ivoire in the top spot, followed by India, Kenya, China, Ireland, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Oman, and the UAE rounding off the top 10. Sri Lanka in the 13th place , below Hong Kong, Russia and Ghana but ahead of Bahrain, Singapore, Switzerland, Chile, Turkey, and the Philippines.

The Trade20 index determines each market’s trade growth potential by analysing changes within the last decade across a wide range of variables, grouped into three equally-weighted pillars: economic dynamism, trade readiness and export diversity.

The study examines 66 markets around the world. It finds that while existing trade powers like China and India continue to rapidly improve their trade potential, African economies are making particularly strong progress from a relatively low starting point.

For many of these high-potential emerging markets, the key driver of momentum is trade readiness, as rapid urbanisation and growing middle-class populations spur infrastructure spending and improvements to the business environment

“With world trade growth under threat from rising protectionism, it is encouraging that many emerging markets are still improving their trade growth potential for the medium term.Many of these economies have also signed, or are negotiating, new trade agreements with the EU, or regional agreements such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA),” the report said.