Methodology
MERI scores how ready a country is for a foreign company to enter and operate. It is a screening tool for comparing markets, not investment advice.
The headline score and the basis of the ranking. It measures the conditions a foreign entrant meets today: regulation and institutions, market access and infrastructure, and talent and the operating environment.
How fast the market is growing: GDP growth, demographics, purchasing-power growth and growth in import demand. It measures momentum, not market size, so a large, slow-growing economy can score low.
Macro stability: inflation, exchange-rate volatility and sovereign credit. A higher score means lower risk. Readiness, Opportunity and Risk are never averaged into one number.
Every raw input is scored against fixed reference points, not against the other countries in that year. For example, an average tariff of 0% scores 100 and a tariff of 20% or more scores 0. On every component, 100 means the best conditions for a foreign entrant; where the raw measure runs the other way (tariffs, restrictions), it is inverted first. Because the reference points do not move, a score in one year can be compared with the same country's score in another.
Each pillar is the weighted average of its four components. All components carry equal weight except intellectual property protection, which carries half.
The readiness score is the cube root of the three pillar scores multiplied together. A geometric mean lets one very weak pillar pull the score down; strength elsewhere cannot fully offset it. Pillars of 90, 90 and 20 give 54.5, where a simple average would give 66.7.
Tiers are bands of the readiness score. Countries with enough data are ranked from highest to lowest; ties share a rank. Where the uncertainty around a score crosses a tier boundary, both tiers are shown (for example "Tier 1-2").
| Tier | Readiness score | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | 80 and above | High readiness |
| Tier 2 | 65 to 79.9 | Strong |
| Tier 3 | 50 to 64.9 | Selective |
| Tier 4 | 35 to 49.9 | High friction |
| Tier 5 | Below 35 | Severe constraints |
| Component | Weight in pillar | What it measures | Built from |
|---|---|---|---|
| General Business Entry Friction | 28.6% | How easy it is to register and start a business. | World Bank B-READY business entry score; where that is missing, the time, cost and number of procedures to start a business (World Bank, last published 2019-2020). |
| Contract Enforcement Reliability | 28.6% | How reliably a commercial contract can be enforced. | World Bank B-READY dispute resolution score; where that is missing, the World Bank enforcing-contracts score (last published 2019-2020). |
| Foreign Ownership Restrictions | 28.6% | How open the law is to foreign ownership. | OECD FDI Regulatory Restrictiveness Index, inverted so that fewer restrictions score higher. Never estimated from peers. |
| Intellectual Property Protection | 14.3% | How well intellectual property is protected. | Currently a proxy: the World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators rule-of-law measure. A dedicated IP source is planned. Carries half weight. |
| Component | Weight in pillar | What it measures | Built from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic Digital Infrastructure | 25% | Basic connectivity for business and consumers. | Fixed broadband and mobile subscriptions per 100 people (World Bank) and the UN E-Government telecommunications sub-index. |
| Financial System Accessibility | 25% | How accessible the formal financial system is. | Account ownership (Global Findex), bank branches per 100,000 adults (IMF) and private credit as a share of GDP (World Bank). |
| Logistics Performance | 25% | How well goods move through ports, customs and transport networks. | World Bank Logistics Performance Index. |
| Trade Openness | 25% | How open trade policy is. This is policy openness, not trade volume relative to GDP. | Average applied tariff (lower tariffs score higher), the OECD Services Trade Restrictiveness Index (fewer restrictions score higher) and the World Bank B-READY international trade score, averaged over whichever are available. |
| Component | Weight in pillar | What it measures | Built from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corruption Risk | 25% | Perceived public-sector corruption. A higher score means less perceived corruption. | Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. |
| Human Capital Quality | 25% | The education and skills of the workforce. | World Bank Human Capital Index and the UNDP education index. |
| Hiring and Workforce Availability | 25% | Workforce availability and the rules around hiring. | Labour force participation (World Bank) and the World Bank B-READY labour score. |
| Personal Security and Rule of Law | 25% | Personal security and the rule of law. | World Justice Project Rule of Law Index and the Global Peace Index; where both are missing, the World Bank rule-of-law estimate. |
Sources published every two or three years are carried forward to the years in between, for a limited number of years. Carried values are flagged.
A missing component can be estimated as the average score of at least three peers in the same region and income group, falling back to region or income group alone. Estimated values are flagged as imputed and counted on each country profile. Foreign ownership restrictions are never estimated this way.
A country is shown as an unrated estimate, without a rank, when more than 30% of its components are missing or its data-confidence score is below 50. Missing data is reported as missing; it does not lower the tier.
Each profile reports coverage (the share of components present), the number imputed and the number missing, with a confidence score that gives the most decision-critical components double weight.
Most inputs are published once a year by their source. Sources are checked on a regular schedule and scores are recomputed when new data lands. Rankings use the most recent year with enough coverage to score; each score shows its year.
Each country profile lists the sources, licences and years behind its indicators. See data sources for the full register.
MERI has not yet been tested against realised market-entry outcomes such as later foreign direct investment. Until that work is published, treat it as a transparent, expert-designed screening framework and not as a validated predictor.
Components are weighted equally by default (intellectual property at half). That is a design choice and has not yet been benchmarked against empirically derived weights.
Intellectual property protection currently uses a general rule-of-law measure. Bank-branch density understates access where mobile money dominates, and can understate it in highly digital financial centres. Labour force participation is a weak proxy for workforce availability. Where the World Bank's B-READY data does not yet cover a country, business entry and contract enforcement fall back to series last published in 2019-2020.
Logistics, digital infrastructure and financial depth improve because investment has already arrived, which favours developed markets. Opportunity and trajectory are shown alongside readiness to offset this.
Some inputs measure the law as written (foreign ownership rules); others measure perceptions (corruption, logistics). Neither is the same as experience on the ground.
In large markets such as India, Brazil, Indonesia and Nigeria, conditions vary widely by state and city. A country score is a starting screen, not a siting tool.
Greenfield investment, acquisition, joint venture, export and licensing depend on these factors differently. The core index does not distinguish between them and leans towards greenfield entry.
Coverage is weakest in frontier markets. The OECD foreign-ownership index, for example, covers about 100 economies. Those countries carry wider uncertainty or appear as unrated estimates.
Preview: still under review and subject to change. Not for citation.
Version 1.0.0.
Preview: still under review and subject to change. Not for citation.
Preview: still under review and subject to change. Not for citation.
Preview: still under review and subject to change. Not for citation.
Version 1.0.0.
Give the index version, the scored year and the date you accessed it, for example: Terrus, Market Entry Readiness Index, version 1.0.0, Singapore, scored year 2024. terrus.io/country/SGP (accessed 9 October 2026). Underlying indicators remain the work of their publishers and should be cited to them; each country profile lists the source and licence for every indicator.