Branding consultancies have developed methods to estimate the value of global product brands and regularly publish rankings based on those estimates. I teamed up with US News & World Report and WPP’s BAV Consulting on the “Best Countries” study to measure nation brands—and how nations’ brands affect their economies.

Colourful mechanised lions, the cogwheel logo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet Make in India initiative, welcomed him from every corner of this German town on Sunday and underscored the agenda he would push in a country known the world over for its engineering and economy.

After capturing the hearts of Vietnamese audiences, South Korea continued to conquer the broader Vietnamese market. As of December 2014, South Korea has been Vietnam’s biggest investor, with US$37.23 billion of foreign direct investment in 4,110 projects throughout the country. 

Many investors have been stampeding out of emerging-market bonds, but they’re falling in love with Colombia. Investors have poured $622.5 million into Colombia’s bond market since the start of the year, the biggest inflow into any emerging-market country so far in 2014, according to fund flow tracker EPFR Global.

Many investors have been stampeding out of emerging-market bonds, but they’re falling in love with Colombia. Investors have poured $622.5 million into Colombia’s bond market since the start of the year, the biggest inflow into any emerging-market country so far in 2014, according to fund flow tracker EPFR Global.

Five years ago, Central and Eastern Europe was home to one of the world’s most impressive growth stories. Annual GDP growth was close to 5%, just behind China and India. Foreign direct investment poured into Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia at a rate of more than $40 billion per year. One in six cars sold in greater Europe was being exported from factories in the region. Productivity and per capita GDP were rising briskly, narrowing the gap with Western Europe.