2025 Baseline Profitability Index Reveals Top Countries for Global Investment

New York, N.Y, – Daniel Altman — economist and publisher of the High Yield Economics newsletter—today published a new edition of the Baseline Profitability Index (BPI), a one-of-its-kind summary statistic that conveys a country’s attractiveness for direct investment. The index factors both growth potential and, uniquely, the preservation and repatriation of returns. The Baseline Profitability Index was originally launched in 2013 and has since been expanded with a new interactive website. India tops the list in the latest 2025 edition, followed by Rwanda and Malaysia.

As the United States continues to experience slowed growth and unsteady markets—and as tariffs force multinationals to reorient supply chains—more investors are looking abroad for new locations to invest their capital. The Baseline Profitability Index serves as a practical benchmark for foreign direct investment by taking into account the share of proceeds that can actually be returned to the investor’s country of origin.

The BPI considers a five-year time horizon for roughly 100 countries around the world. Three factors will determine the success of a foreign investment: how much an asset’s value grows (affected by security and financial risks), the preservation of that value (influenced by corruption and the strength of property rights), and the ease of returning the proceeds of the asset (impacted by capital controls, exchange rates, and relative prices).

A fast-growing business in an emerging economy, for instance, is worth far less to a foreign direct investor if the returns will be frittered away by expropriation or costly to repatriate. The BPI is the only index to combine these factors into a summary statistic which conveys a country’s overall attractiveness for investment. All of these factors can be tracked independently on the interactive website at baselineprofitabilityindex.com.

Fastest Growth Does Not Always Equal Highest Returns

India leads the pack in the 2025 edition of the BPI. Rwanda is in second place, Malaysia third, while Botswana and the Philippines come fourth and fifth, respectively:

Top 20 Countries By Overall BPI Score (rounded)

For a complete list, please visit the website at baselineprofitabilityindex.com.

The BPI highlights two main groups of economies that have the potential to offer attractive repatriation of proceeds to foreign direct investors. One group offers high growth rates and the potential for real exchange rate appreciation—an increase in the value of its goods and services relative to those of other countries. Among the leaders of this group are India, Rwanda, the Philippines, and Vietnam. The other group offers a safe environment for investment where returns can be preserved and easily repatriated. This group is led by Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Czechia, and Poland. A few highly ranked countries, like Malaysia and Botswana, fall somewhere in between the two groups.

“The newest edition of the Baseline Profitability Index shows once again that the economies making headlines for fast growth – like Ethiopia and Bangladesh – aren’t always the ones that will deliver the highest returns,” said Daniel Altman. “Investors who want to know how much of their returns will actually reach their pockets need to take a more nuanced approach, and the Baseline Profitability Index is exactly the right tool for balancing those risks.”

India the Most Investment-Worthy Country

India tops the list in 2025 and was also the top-ranked country in the last edition of the BPI, published in 2015. The high returns India has delivered to investors since then, including the upward trend in the real value of the rupee, have served to validate the BPI. India’s continued preeminence is due to the rapid growth of its economy, its stable business environment, and the improving conditions for repatriating proceeds of investments.

“India’s growing economy continues to offer an extremely attractive home for foreign direct investment,” Altman said. “The Baseline Profitability Index suggests that investors in India can also expect further appreciation of the real exchange rate to make their Indian assets more valuable. In the meantime, there is still plenty of room for India to improve its scores in areas like security, finance, governance, and property rights.”