This headline from IFAOnline caught my eye yesterday: “Britain sinks below Nigeria in financial stability ratings“.
The World Economic Forum ranked 55 economies in order of their financial stability, with Britain coming out 37th, followed by the U.S. in 38th. From the Times:
…the forum identified worries about exchange rate stability, the frequency of banking crises, the manageability of private and government debt and the vulnerability to real estate bubbles as problems. It ranked the UK 37th out of 55 nations in this category. This left Britain trailing a string of countries seen in the past as economically volatile including Thailand, Brazil, Poland and Columbia. Norway, Switzerland and Hong Kong took the three top places for financial stability.
Whilst our stability might rank poorly, Britain is actually now the #1 leading financial market, followed by Australia and the U.S. (which dropped from 1st place last year), thanks to the “relative” strength of our banks and non-banking financial activities.
It got me wondering whether Nigerian internet users are getting used to more and more spam emails telling them they’ve won the UK lotto but to claim their winnings they need to send their details to some guy in Birmingham.
photo credit: eisenbahner