Renormalons and Analytic Properties of the \beta function

The presence or absense of renormalon singularities in the Borel plane is shown to be determined by the analytic properties of the Gell-Mann - Low function \beta(g) and some other functions. A constructive criterion for the absense of singularities consists in the proper behavior of the \beta function and its Borel image B(z) at infinity, \beta(g)\sim g^\alpha and B(z)\sim z^\alpha with \alpha\le 1. This criterion is probably fulfilled for the \phi^4 theory, QED and QCD, but is violated in the O(n)-symmetric sigma model with n\to\infty.