SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, JUNE 14, 2023 – Commercial property insurer FM Global today revealed the 2023 FM Global Resilience Index, an online, interactive tool that supports strategic decision-making for global businesses. The index ranks countries on 15 measures of economic, risk quality and supply chain resilience.

The FM Global Resilence Index is considered an essential tool for site selection, supply chain design and market targeting amid critical business risks like climate change, economic volatility and geopolitical tensions. Several global organisations have found the index so valuable they have integrated it into their site-selection/enterprise risk management software for strategic decision-making, demonstrating the power of valuable data like that found in the Resilience Index.

“Objective data should support most major business decisions, and in the index we’ve aggregated salient data to help companies build resilience for decades to come,” said Pentti Tofte, staff senior vice president, data analytics, FM Global. “When potential disruptions loom, a resilient company can avoid losses of revenue, market share and growth – losses that may have been unrecoverable.”

“Every country is unique when it comes to it's risk profile and Australia is no different,” says Andrew Stafford, senior vice president, operations manager at FM Global Australia.“ With leaders in the region becoming increasingly concerned of climate-related business disruptions, the FM Global Resilience Index can play a critical role in assessing and strengthening the resilience of Australian businesses - many of which are key contributors both to the community and economy.”

Data drives decisions

FM Global’s data, both proprietary and aggregated from respected third parties, places these 10 countries/territories atop this year’s Resilience Index:

  1. Denmark
  2. Singapore
  3. Luxembourg
  4. Germany
  5. Switzerland
  6. United States 3 (Central region)
  7. United states 1 (East)
  8. Sweden
  9. Finland
  10. Austria

     19. Australia

The bottom three are:

  1. Ethiopia
  2. Venezuela
  3. Haiti

Australia moves one spot from 20 to 19 in this years FM Global Resilience Index, making it the second highest overall for risk in the Asia Pacific region, with Singapore taking the top spot in the region.

The biggest riser was the Dominican Republic, which rose from 99th to 95th based on a higher climate risk quality ranking in this year’s index. The biggest faller was Lebanon, which dropped from 101st to 106th, due in part to a lower ranking in health care spending.

Facts support good decisions

The index provides relevant data around some of the most pivotal topics that companies face today.

Climate change is one of them. The index uses facts about each country’s climate risk exposure and climate risk quality to help companies prosper.  

The global economy is another concern, and more productive countries (those with higher GDP per capita) generally have more resilient business environments. Health expenditure per capita, energy intensity and high urbanization rates also affect resilience. Data on all of these economic drivers is captured in the index to keep companies growing strong.

As geopolitics continue to shift, companies can consult the index’s political risk rankings to enhance stabiilty for future growth.

“Australia as a whole ranks relatively well when it comes to our preparadness against climate risks but at the same time, we rank relatively poorly for climate risk exposure,“ said Mr Stafford

“We need to be aware of these risks and the potential damage they can cause. The FM Global Resilience Index can help business leaders understand local vulnerabilities, evaluate risk and take informed and actionable decisions so they can continue to operate even in the most challenging times.”

Australia ranks 107th on the list for climate exposure – the percentage of a country's area devoted to economic activities that is exposed to wind or flood. At the same time, Australia also ranks 15th on the climate risk quality measure – the quality and enforcement of a country’s building code with respect to wind-resistant design (80 per cent), combined with the level of wind and flood risk improvement achieved, given the inherent wind and flood risks in a country (20 per cent).

Rankings

FM Global has chosen to make the Resilience Index freely accessible to any individual or company seeking to improve resilience, reduce risk and achieve their environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals. It’s part of an exclusive suite of products designed to support FM Global clients in a world of changing climate. The index consistently attracts thousands of global business leaders representing numerous sectors, including chemicals, education, forest products, governments, healthcare, mining, molten materials, pharma/biotech, power generation and semiconductors.

Explore the index:

About FM Global

Established nearly two centuries ago, and present in the Asia Pacific region for more than 50 years, FM Global is a mutual insurance company whose capital, scientific research capability and engineering expertise are solely dedicated to property risk management and the resilience of its policyholder-owners. These owners, who share the belief that the majority of property loss is preventable, represent many of the world’s largest organizations, including one of every four Fortune 500 companies. They work with FM Global to better understand the hazards that can impact their business continuity in order to make cost-effective risk management decisions, combining property loss prevention with insurance protection.