Economy of countries offering Citizenship by Investment

Global growth of CBI industry is nearing 5 billion in 2018 and expected to more with more and more countries offering investor visas for investors. There are around 10 countries officially offering citizenship by investment for wealthy families and investors.

Before you head on applying for CBI passport, what is known about these countries in terms of economy, debt, population, healthcare education, safety? Is the economy stable and investment will be safe?

These are vital indicators we have compiled, clients need to check before investing in these countries for citizenship or residency.

• St Kitts population is only 55,000 while Moldova has 3.5M population
•  Malta had the highest GDP growth in 2017. Vanuatu also surprisingly 4.5% GDP growth.
• Cyprus is the most preferred citizenship program for UHNW population
• FDI inflows in St Lucia is higher than St Kitts and Grenada.
• Inflation is very high in Moldova.
• Saint Lucia has highest tourist arrivals than all the other caribbean CBI countries.
• Caribbean countries have no taxes.
• Montenegro and Moldova are the best for doing business.
• St Kitts and Dominica has the the lowest real estate investment ceiling for passport
• St Lucia and Antigua are the only two countries offering business investment option for citizenship
• St Lucia, Cyprus are the only two countries offering full Government stocks/bond option for citizenship.
• Montenegro has no donation requires full investment €250K in real estate in developed or undeveloped areas.
• House prices in Malta (2.9%) growing faster than Cyprus (1.5%)

Citizenship by Investment

Malta and Cyprus are the only two official EU citizenship by investment schemes. Moldova is the cheapest citizenship by investment along with 3 caribbean countries.

* Moldova and Montenegro launching Oct 2018

Total Population

• St Kitts has only 55,000 population while Moldova has population of 3.5 million.
• St Kitts has 16,500 diaspora economic citizens who dont live in the country, which is 1/3 of the population
• Cambodia is the most populated country with over 16 million population
• Cyprus has a population of over 1 million twice that of Malta

GDP (annual growth) 2017

Annual growth of GDP% in 2017.

Annual percentage growth rate of GDP at market prices based on constant local currency. Aggregates are based on constant 2010 U.S. dollars. GDP is the sum of gross value added by all resident producers in the economy plus any product taxes and minus any subsidies not included in the value of the products. It is calculated without making deductions for depreciation of fabricated assets or for depletion and degradation of natural resources.

• Dominica GDP contracted because of Hurricane Maria damages. Maria was Dominica’s worst natural disaster with damage estimated at US$1.3 billion (226 percent of GDP) and because of this disaster, Dominica GDP growth is in negative. IMF said it will take 5 years to recover at pre-hurricane levels.
• Malta has the best performing country with 6.4% GDP growth among all the countries offering CBI programs
• Vanuatu has surprise GDP growth in second place.
• Moldova and Montenegro are doing quite well in GDP growth.
• Grenada tops with 3.7% GDP growth among caribbean CIPs

Richest CBI countries (GDP per capita)

• Malta is the richest CBI country followed by Cyprus
• Moldova and Vanuatu is the last places among CBI programs
• St Kitts is the richest country among CBI programs in the Caribbean

• Moldova and Bulgaria population growth have imploded.
• Malta population growth rate have exploded and so as Vanuatu
• Antigua and St Kitts population are growing

• Cyprus received the biggest foreign investment in 2016, amounting to 2.6 billion, followed close by Malta.
• Montenegro foreign investment inflows almost 2.5X times of Moldova
• Saint Lucia received the biggest FDI among caribbean countries offering CBI and Dominica in the last place.
• Samoa received the lowest foreign investment

• Moldova has the highest 6.3% inflation among all countries.
• Saint Lucia has the lowest stable 0% inflation
• St Kitts has the highest inflation among caribbean countries of 2.2%
• Cyprus inflation is lower than Malta

• Montenegro best for ease of doing business among CBI countries
• Moldova ranks first for business startups
• St Kitts and Nevis ranks last along with Antigua.
• Cyprus ranks above Malta for business
• St Lucia ranks first among caribbean countries
• Bulgaria in third place with low corporate taxes

• Cyprus received over 3 million tourists in 2016
• St Lucia ranks first for tourist arrivals in the caribbean countries offering citizenship programs
• Montenegro is in third place for tourist arrivals
• Dominica had only 78,000 tourist arrivals in 2016 lowest among the countries.

Government Debt

• Moldova has the lowest debt among CBI countries with a quarter of GDP
• Cyprus has the highest government debt of 99% of GDP
• Dominica has the highest debt among caribbean countries 87% of GDP
• StKitts has the lowest 67% of GDP among CBI countries in the caribbean

Passport rank

Passport power with visa free travel freedom is one of the important indicators of Golden visa/ CBI programs.

Tax rates by countries

Taxes must not be overlooked by applicants when applying for passport programs through investment.

• Caribbean countries have no income or corporate or inheritance taxes.
• Montenegro has the lowest corporate income tax rates and business friendly country.
• Malta and Cyprus has 35% maximum personal tax rates

Country	Corporate tax	Income tax(minimum )	Income tax(maximum )
Cyprus	12.5%	0%	35%
Dominica	N/A	N/A	N/A
Grenada	N/A	N/A	N/A
Jordan	20%	0%	14%
Malta	0–10% (35%[32]pre rebate)	0%	35%
Moldova	12%	7%	18%
Montenegro	9%	9% (first EUR 720)	15%
Saint Kitts and Nevis	0 %	0 %	0 %
Saint Lucia	N/A	N/A	N/A
Turkey	20%	15%	35%
Vanuatu	N/A	N/A	N/A

The following table summarizes the taxation of local and foreign income of individuals, depending on their residence or citizenship in the country.

Country or territory	Taxes local income of			Taxes foreign income of
	nonresident individuals	resident citizens	resident foreigners	resident citizens	resident foreigners	nonresident citizens
Antigua and Barbuda	no	no	no	no	no	no
Bahamas	no	no	no	no	no	no
Bahrain	no	no	no	no	no	no
Brunei	no	no	no	no	no	no
Cayman Islands	no	no	no	no	no	no
Kuwait	no	no	no	no	no	no
Maldives	no	no	no	no	no	no
Monaco	no	no	no	no	no	no
Nauru	no	no	no	no	no	no
Oman	no	no	no	no	no	no
Pitcairn Islands	no	no	no	no	no	no
Qatar	no	no	no	no	no	no
Saint Barthelemy	no	no	no	no	no	no
Saint Kitts and Nevis	no	no	no	no	no	no
Somalia	no	no	no	no	no	no
Turks and Caicos Islands	no	no	no	no	no	no
United Arab Emirates	no	no	no	no	no	no
Vanuatu	no	no	no	no	no	no
Vatican City	no	no	no	no	no	no
Wallis and Futuna	no	no	no	no	no	no
Western Sahara	no	no	no	no	no	no