Admittedly, few would be surprised to see the Japanese market among the top ten peformers this year, given the impact Abenomics has had in reversing investors’ long-bearish sentiment.

More notable, perhaps, is that the top-performing single country market this year is Venezuela – for the second year in a row.

The Venezuelan stock market is up a staggering 452% year to date in sterling terms, according to Morningstar, despite a year of political uncertainty for the country – most notably through a devaluation of its currency in February and the death of president Hugo Chavez in March.

Equity market rises and economic improvement do not always go hand in hand, but a look at the rest of the top ten may point to changing fortunes for the global economy.

Though Greece, for example, remains mired in a deep recession, the three European countries in the list are those that arguably suffered most in the crisis: Iceland, Ireland, and Greece itself.

Fund managers are also beginning to move back into these nations: whether it be Greek banks or the Irish stocks which comprise the biggest country overweight in the top-performing Ignis European Smaller Companies fund.

Elsewhere, the underperformance of Apple has not stopped the tech-focused Nasdaq from returning over 30% this year as US markets continue to surge ahead.

Below is the list of ten best performing country indices year-to-date, based on figures compiled by Morningstar.

 Source: Morningstar