Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) is the research and analysis division of the British media company The Economist Group. It provides forecasting and advisory services including monthly country reports, five-year economic forecasts, country risk assessments, and industry reports for clients worldwide.
Leon Calvert has been the Managing Director of the EIU since his appointment in April 2025. The previous Managing Director was Robin Bew, who had also served as Editorial Director and Chief Economist.
The EIU Democracy Index, first released in 2006 and updated annually since 2010, measures the state of democracy in 167 countries across five categories: electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, functioning of government, political participation, and political culture. It is one of the two most widely used democracy indices worldwide, alongside the V-Dem Democracy Indices.
CHAMPS stands for Chongqing, Hefei, Anshan, Maanshan, Pingdingshan, and Shenyang. The EIU coined the acronym in its November 2010 Access China White Paper, which profiled the top twenty fastest-growing emerging cities in China.
The EIU has made several acquisitions: Business International Corporation in 1986, Clearstate (a Singapore-based healthcare market intelligence firm) in April 2012, Bazian (a London health analytics firm founded by Vivek Muthu and Anna Donald) in December 2012, and Canback & Company (a Boston-based management consulting firm) in July 2015. Canback was fully folded into the EIU in 2020.
Greece ranked as the worst-performing country in the EIU's Government Broadband Index, released in January 2011. Its low coverage target, slow deployment schedule, high public funding share as a percentage of government budget revenues, and a plan that did little to encourage competition all contributed to its poor ranking.