This study is put out by KPMG, comparing business costs in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. This report measures the combined impact of 27 cost components that are most likely to vary by location, as applied to specific industries and business operations.
The eight-month research program covered 121 cities in 11 countries: France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, Australia and Japan. More than 2,000 individual business scenarios were examined, analyzing more than 30,000 items of data.
The basis for comparison is the after-tax cost of startup and operation for representative business operations in 12 industries, over a 10-year time horizon. Results are based on the combined results for a group of comparable cities in each country and are expressed in comparison to the baseline results of the United States.
High level conclusions are:
- Canada is the overall cost leader, followed very closely by Australia, both with business costs approximately eight to nine percent below those in the United States.
- The United Kingdom ranks third, with overall business costs lower than in the other European countries and the United States.
- Italy, France and Luxembourg have the lowest costs among the continental European countries, with business costs about one percent lower than in the United States.
- The United States represents the study baseline and is the country that has experienced the greatest improvement in its competitiveness since 2002.
- Iceland ranks as a more expensive location than the United States overall, although it outranks the US in most service operations where transportation costs are not significant.
- The Netherlands has costs that are higher than in most other European countries but are still significantly lower than those in Germany.
- The most expensive country for international business costs is Japan, with costs approximately 24 percent higher than in the United States.