The 2010 'Growth and Development Bridge (GDB)' Index

A new index is Born !  The 'Growth and Development Bridge' Index.  Index building has become a very popular tool to benchmark countries on different records. Countries have been ranked according to their competitiveness, or according to their human development indicators, or according to their corruption records, etc. But no index has yet been developed to gauge the quality of countries’ economic fundamentals. The Growth and Development Bridge (GDB) Index has been created to fill this gap.
The striking fact from the global rankings of the GDB Index is the top position of two small Asian economies, Singapore and Hong Kong. The ranking of countries which follows are the Netherlands and Switzerland, which are placed in 3rd and 4th positions, followed by the United States in 5th position.  Another important fact, but of less a surprise, is the position of the four Nordic countries -- Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland – in the top ten countries. 
The strong emergence of Asian countries in the ranking is noteworthy, as besides the two Asian leading economies, other Asian economies are also well placed. The Republic of Korea is holding the 10th position and Japan, the 18th. China, ranked in the 25th position, is well ahead of a number of high-income countries, by Anh-Nga Tran-Nguyen and Marwan Elkhoury. Read the complete article here.