LONDON — India tops the sales focus for major global corporations, followed closely by China, with Brazil the main focus for 19 percent and Russia for 14 percent.
A survey by accountants Ernst & Young found that 47 percent of high-performing global firms saw India as the most important market for sales while 44 percent named China.
"Brazil can be seen to continue to emerge, while Russia's relative importance has declined," the study said, noting Russia had fallen out of the top 10 for North American firms though it is in fifth place for Western European firms.
The study, conducted for Ernst & Young by the Economist Intelligence Unit, interviewed 400 top-level executives at leading international corporations in January and February 2011. It distinguished between top-performing and less successful companies on the basis of revenue and EBITDA growth.
Almost half the high-performance companies named economic growth forecasts as the main factor for sales and investment strategies while 40 percent identified demographic profiles.
India and China are the world's fastest growing big economies and have more than a billion people each.
The study found that the top markets for production for all respondents were China (30 percent) and India (28 percent), followed by Brazil and Mexico with 12 percent each. Russia got 13 percent of the votes of high-performing firms in Western Europe and 13 percent in North America.