Today, as news organizations around the world reported on the DOW hitting 13,000 points for the first time since the “Great Recession” began, there’s one stock index that has outperformed them all, withstanding every bubble and crisis over the last 10 years. The Bloomberg Riskless Return Ranking showed that the Tel Aviv TA-25 yielded the highest returns for developed nation benchmark indexes over the past 10 years, with an average of around 7.6 percent on investment. In a region known for instability and chaos, Israel is not only the only politically stable democracy, its economy is a global leader to boot! Coming in second is an economic powerhouse you might have heard of – Hong Kong at a return of 6.7 percent.
Said a former hedge fund manager in an interview with Bloomberg,“Israel is an exciting place to invest… the country is surrounded by enemies, it’s always on the edge of extinction, but it expands and prospers.”
Bloomberg’s report made it to the desk of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who called it a “great achievement.”
So how are these returns calculated? Analysts divide total return by a numerical representation of the daily price volatility, or how likely it is to swing for big gains or dip for big losses. When adjusted for risk, Israel’s TA-25 index provided the best returns on investment.
Israel’s economy has been booming in recent years, and shows no signs of slowing down. The Ministry of Finance projects 2012 growth to be 3.2 percent, which is significantly higher than the 1.2 percent average grown that the economic powerhouses in the G-10 are projected to grow.
To read more, check out the full piece in Business Week here.
