BEIRUT: The Nation Brand Perception Index (NBPI) ranked Lebanon in 175th place among 200 countries around the world and in 14th place among 20 countries in the Middle East and North Africa region in the third quarter of 2009, as reported by Lebanon This Week, the economic publication of the Byblos Bank Group. Lebanon also came in 35th place among 37 upper-middle income countries (UMICs) included in the survey. The NBPI analyzes international perceptions of a country’s brand. It covers the tone, whe­ther positive or negative, and frequency of mentions in the international media. It said the number of times a country is mentioned reflects the strength of the brand, but not necessarily its quality. The index is based on a quarterly analysis of millions of mentions of countries in hundreds of thousands of news articles in 38 prominent global media sources. The index scores rely both on the overall quality of the media coverage and the prominence of the country, determined by the number of country references or mentions. 

Globally, Lebanon ranked ahead of Vietnam, Rwanda, and Kenya and came behind China, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Co­moros. It also ranked ahead of Russia and Mexico, and behind Panama and Argentina among UMICs. Lebanon ranked in 175th place globally in the third quarter of 2009, down from 174th place in the second quarter of this year and up from 188th place in the third quarter of 2008. Lebanon received a score of 41.6 points, below the global average of 49.9 points and the UMICs average of 49.3 points, as well as below the MENA average of 42.5 points and the Arab average of 44.4 points. Its score dec­reased by 3.2 percent in the third quarter from 43 points in the second quarter of 2009 but increased by 34.7 percent from 30.9 points in the third quarter of 2008. 

In parallel, Lebanon was the 35th most-mentioned country in the international media in the third quarter of 2009, the fifth most mentioned country from the MENA region and the fifth most mentioned among UMICs. Globally, Lebanon was mentioned more than the Netherlands, Myanmar and North Korea, and less than Taiwan, Turkey and Georgia. It was also mentioned more than Turkey and Poland and less than Mexico and Malaysia among UMICs. It was the 38th most mentioned country in the second quarter of 2009 and the 36th most mentioned in the third quarter of 2008. Lebanon was mentioned 13,359 times in the international media, below the global average mentions of 16,570 times, as well as below the MENA average mentions of 14,880 times, but above the Arab average mentions of 8,742 times and above the UMICs’ average mentions of 6,316 times.

 Lebanon’s number of mentions in the third quarter of 2009 was lower than its 15,125 mentions in the second quarter of 2009 and lower than the 14,478 mentions in the third quarter of 2008. – The Daily Star