Australia has been ranked 17th in the 20 countries best placed for economic recovery after COVID-19, sitting five spots above Singapore.

The ranking comes from US-based commercial property insurer FM Global, which assessed 130 countries for their economic resilience.

New Zealand is ranked at 15, two spots behind the UK. Australia fell between Canada and Belgium.

Norway, Switzerland and Denmark took the top three spots. Venezuela ranked 129 and Haiti took last place.

FM Global Australia’s Senior VP and Operations Manager Lynette Schultheis says the pandemic has brought many businesses to a standstill and caused significant disruption and economic uncertainty.

“Australia has not been immune,” she said. “However, it is encouraging to see that steps taken to date to mitigate our risk across a number of key areas.”

That had placed businesses on a strong footing as they look to recover from this unprecedented operational shock.

The annual FM Global Resilience Index measures economic, risk quality and supply chain.

Australia scored 90.1 of a possible 100 for resilience, beating out 113 other countries. Only Norway achieved a perfect score.

Countries’ rankings are derived from 12 measures that address business concerns around such vulnerabilities as natural hazards, cyber threats, political and economic risk.

Australia scored well for its fire risk quality and natural hazard risk quality, helped by quality and enforcement of building codes.

Australia also ranks highly for supply chain resilience, including control of corruption, supply chain visibility and quality of infrastructure, highlighting the quality of transport, telephony and energy infrastructure, as well as Australia’s ability to track and trace consignments across its supply chain.

Still, FM Global says businesses with supply chains extended into neighbouring countries across Asia may be cause for concern as a number of major manufacturing hubs in Asia ranked poorly, including major trading partner China.

Globalisation of industries such as manufacturing created complexity which could leave business leaders unprepared for significant disruption in supply chains, and for the potential financial, legal and reputational risks that result, it says.

“This pandemic should reinforce the importance of striking a better balance between cost-effectiveness and a diversified supply chain,” Ms Schultheis said.

Australia’s overall resilience ranking was held back by its cyber risk, oil intensity and corporate governance.