The 31st edition of the Global Financial Centres Index was published today by Z/Yen Group, in partnership with the China Development Institute (CDI). The launch webinar for GFCI 31 linked London and Abu Dhabi.
New York held onto the top position in the index and has now been in first place for three years.
London remained in second place, but dropped 14 points in the ratings.
The other centres in the top 10 are closely matched, with only eight rating points separating 3rd place Hong Kong from 10th place Shenzhen.
Among the top 40 centres, only one centre rose more than 10 rank places and none fell more than 10 places. Overall the average rating was stable, less than one point lower than GFCI 30, following three consecutive drops in the average rating.
Asia/Pacific centres generally recovered losses that they experienced in GFCI 30. This suggests that there is restored confidence in the economic strength of the region, and in trade performance. North American and Western European centres had generally stable performance.
The data on which GFCI 31 is based relate to the period up to the end of 2021. While we might have expected more volatility in the ratings as the world continues to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, the broadly level ratings in the index suggest that in the last half of 2021, confidence was returning to the world economy.
The invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation will affect future ratings in ways that we cannot predict, except that it seems clear that the performance of the Russian financial centres of Moscow and St Petersburg is likely to fall sharply following the imposition of broad international sanctions against the Russian economy.
Atlanta, Lugano, and Ho Chi Minh City join the GFCI for the first time.
In the GFCI FinTech ratings, New York and Shanghai retained first and second positions. Beijing and San Francisco overtook London to take third and fourth place.
