The United States and China were ranked the world's first and second most attractive destinations for foreign direct investment for the third consecutive year with indices of 2.1 and 2.0, respectively, according to the latest Foreign Direct Investment Confidence Index issued by A.T. Kearney, a leading global management consulting firm.

The FDI Confidence Index, first created in 1998, is based on a survey of corporate executives' views on forward-looking global investment. Values are calculated on a scale of 0 to 3.

The index shows that 66 percent of businesses plan to bring their FDI back to pre-financial crisis levels by 2016, with Asian investors showing the strongest determination.

Seven of the top 10 countries and around three-fourths of the top 25 are developed countries, where business leaders often find safer ground for new opportunities, according to the report.

Forty-six percent of executives show more optimism about the economic outlook of the United States, the world's largest economy, than they were a year ago.

FDI in China – the world's second-largest economy – rose by 3 percent in 2014 when the country's global FDI inflow reached a new high. FDI in China in 2014 focused mainly on the services sector, including logistics, e-commerce, transportation and finance.

The following are the top 10 countries for investment in 2015.

  Australia

 

FDI score in 2015:1.79

Rank in 2015:10

Rank in 2014:8