JEDDAH – Saudi Arabia took the 14th position among the top 30 countries in the “2012 Global Retail Development Index” released recently by A.T. Kearney's Global Consumer Institute. Published since 2002, the GRDI ranks the top 30 developing countries for retail investment worldwide. The Index analyzes 25 macroeconomic and retail-specific variables to help retailers devise successful global strategies and to identify emerging market investment opportunities. Although the Arab Spring uprisings had a negative impact on the rankings of several MENA countries including Lebanon (-10 versus 2011), Morocco (-7 versus 2011) and Tunisia (-12 versus 2011), several countries from the region are still high on the ranking — U.A.E. (#7), Oman (#8), Kuwait (#12) and Saudi Arabia (#14), the report said. Brazil, is number 1 for the second year in a row driven by a growing middle class economy, high consumption rates, a large, urban population, and reduced political and financial risk. In addition, Brazil's relatively young population and high per capita spending in the apparel and luxury sectors make this country a top destination for specialty retailers. Botswana ranked 20th in this year's GRDI. Its entry into the GRDI ranking is a pre-cursor to steadily developing countries in the Sub-Sahara Africa region that could emerge as favorable retail markets in coming years. Michael Moriarty, A.T. Kearney partner and study co-leader, said “given the accelerated growth rates of developing countries compared to the anemic growth in European and North American markets, global retailers must have a strategy for expansion into developing markets. In the past five years, US-based Wal-Mart, France-based Carrefour, U.K.-based Tesco and Germany-based Metro Group saw their revenues in developing countries grow 2.5 times faster than their home markets.” Latin America's expanding, dynamic retail sector and strong economic growth has driven strong results with seven countries included in the GRDI this year. Many retailers have entered Latin America in the last few years. Retail sales per capita in Brazil (#1 in the Index) have grown 12 percent per year for the past four years to reach $5,514, the third largest of the countries ranked in the GRDI. The retail market size increased 15 percent last year, and consumer spending has increased by nine percent per year since 2007. – SG
