The World Economic Forum's first Financial Development Index places SA in 25th place out of 52 countries.

The survey analyses key drivers of financial system development and economic growth in developing and developed countries.

The United States narrowly edged the United Kingdom to take the top position. The US and the United Kingdom have close rankings, outstripping the remaining countries in the top 10: Germany, Japan, Canada, France, Switzerland, Hong Kong SAR, Netherlands and Singapore.

The Financial Development Report 2008, which promotes the full potential of financial systems to drive economic growth in developing countries, provides a ranking of 52 of the world's leading financial systems through which countries can benchmark their performance and evaluate priorities for reform.

The rankings are based on over 120 variables spanning institutional and business environments, financial stability, and size and depth of capital markets, among other factors, in assessing the complex financial systems of the 52 countries studied.

Unique measure

An important and unique measure captured by the Index includes the degree to which businesses feel they can easily access capital.

The report draws on data taken from a variety of publicly available sources as well as the World Economic Forum's Executive Opinion Survey.

South Africa is the highest ranked African country and comes in one place behind China. It is followed at number 26 by Kuwait. India is at 31 on this measure. Brazil comes in at 40, with Venezuela bringing up the rear, behind the Ukraine.

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