South Africa slipped from 7th in 2025 to 12th in 2026 in the Kearney FDI Confidence Index (FDI). 25 emerging market countries were ranked in the index. An improvement from 17th rank in 2023 when load shedding was at its worst. The ranking increased to 11 in 2024 due to a significant reduction in load shedding. The decline in 2026 was mainly due to the contraction in the mining sector.
Originally, 2026 Kearney FDI Confidence Index Created using primary data from a proprietary survey of 507 senior executives from the world's leading corporations. Accordingly, Kearney conducted the survey in January 2026. In other words, before the start of the Middle East war on February 28, 2026.
The respondents included top executives and regional and business leaders. All participating companies have annual revenues of R8.5 billion or more. The companies are headquartered in 29 markets and span all regions, Kearney said. The sector distribution among respondents was service sector firms for 55%, industrial firms for 35% and IT firms for 10%.
Kearney calculates the index as a weighted average of the number of high, medium and low responses to questions on the likelihood of making a direct investment in a selected market over the next three years.
South African details
South Africa scored the highest among 25 emerging market countries for its natural resources at 36%. This high score explains why mining The sector contraction had such an impact on South Africa's ranking in 2025. In contrast, China ranked lowest in this category with a score of only 15%.
South Africa ranks lowest in technology innovation with a score of 19%. China ranked highest with a score of 38%.
Despite President Cyril Ramaphosa's repeated pledges since 2018 to improve the ease of doing business in South Africa, South Africa's score was only 22%. It was the same score for lack of transparency/corruption.
Concurrently, South Africa did not score high in its talent pool at 23%. India's score is the highest at 40%. As a result, economic performance is equally weak with 24% compared to top-ranked China's 34%.
Surprisingly, the quality of South Africa's infrastructure is 25% fair. This is not far from the UAE and China, which held the top spot with 27%.