India 9th most valuable nation brand in the world; US, China lead the list

Even though India slipped by one spot, it was still ranked one of the 10 most valuable nation brands in the world. Brand Finance's annual Nation Brands report measures nations' brands based on the country's image and the economy as a whole. India was ranked 8th in last year's report but slipped by a spot to the 9th rank. Despite its brand value rising 5% from last year, India has slipped one rank for the second consecutive year.

India's brand value was $2,046 billion in 2017 and has increased to $2,159 billion in 2018, the report mentioned. India is one of the only two countries in the top 10 to have lost a spot. The other country to slip by a rank is Japan.  

Topping the list and maintaining its lead is US with a brand value of $25,899 billion which rose by 23% from last year. The US economy has grown at a rapid pace and is expected to continue it in the coming months. All of its parameters, including GDP, consumer sales, car output show growth.

The country to see the highest jump in brand value is Germany with 28%.

Following US is China in the second spot with a brand value of $12,779 billion. China's brand value saw an increase of 25% from last year, followed by Germany with $5,147 billion, UK with $3,750 billion, Japan with $3,598 billion and France with $3,224 billion.

Every country is also given a brand rating. India's brand rating - AA - hasn't changed despite the change in ranks. India has been overtaken by US, China, Germany, UK, Japan, France, Canada and Italy. South Korea, Australia, Spain, Switzerland, Russia, UAE, and Singapore are all ranked below India.  

Brand Finance measures the strength and value of the brands using a method based on the royalty relief mechanism employed to value the world's largest companies. It looks into nation brand strength, royalty rate, revenues, weighted average cost of capital (WACC) or discount rate and brand valuation.