A Tel Aviv marketplace. Photo: Miriam Alster / Flash90.

JNS.org – A nearly nonexistent inflation rate and low unemployment have helped propel Israel to the No. 3 spot on a list of the world’s most stable and promising economies for 2016 published by the Bloomberg financial news agency.

The list named Hong Kong as the most stable economy in 2016, followed by South Korea. Denmark, Taiwan, Iceland, Japan, Switzerland, Singapore and Thailand followed Israel to round out the top 10 in the rankings.

The countries ranked lowest for stability in 2016 included Croatia, Colombia, Uruguay, Brazil, Serbia, Spain, Ukraine, Turkey — ranked fifth from last — Greece, Argentina, and South Africa. The country whose economy was rated lowest for 2016 was Venezuela, despite its rich oil resources.

Israel’s economy continues to perform well by international standards. In January, Israel cracked the top 10 on the 2017 Bloomberg Innovation Index, which rates the level of innovation in a nation’s economy by scoring its spending on research and development and the number of publicly traded high-tech companies.

Earlier this month, a report by Bank of America Merrill Lynch deemed the Israeli economy “on a robust recovery path with growth rates running at 3 to 4 percent levels,” noting that the Bank of Israel was “defying gravity” by checking the appreciation of the shekel against the dollar.