{"id":320070,"date":"2019-05-29T11:57:59","date_gmt":"2019-05-29T09:57:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=320070"},"modified":"2019-05-29T11:57:59","modified_gmt":"2019-05-29T09:57:59","slug":"these-are-the-worlds-most-competitive-economies-including-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/320070\/these-are-the-worlds-most-competitive-economies-including-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"These are the world\u2019s most competitive economies – including South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Singapore has ranked as the world\u2019s most competitive economy for the first time since 2010, according to the IMD World Competitiveness Rankings, overtaking the United States which slipped down to third.<\/p>\n

Singapore\u2019s rise to the top is driven by its advanced technological infrastructure, the availability of skilled labor, favourable immigration laws, and efficient ways to set up new businesses, the report said.<\/p>\n

Hong Kong SAR held on to second place, helped by a benign tax and business policy environment and access to business finance, it said.<\/p>\n

The initial boost to confidence from President Donald Trump\u2019s first wave of tax policies appears to have faded in the United States, according to the ranking.<\/p>\n

While still setting the pace globally for levels of infrastructure and economic performance, the competitiveness of the world\u2019s biggest economy was hit by higher fuel prices, weaker hi-tech exports and fluctuations in the value of the dollar.<\/p>\n

“In a year of high uncertainty in global markets due to rapid changes in the international political landscape as well as trade relations, the quality of institutions seem to be the unifying element for increasing prosperity.<\/p>\n

“A strong institutional framework provides the stability for business to invest and innovate, ensuring a higher quality of life for citizens,” said Arturo Bris, IMD professor and director of IMD World Competitiveness Centre.<\/p>\n

Economists regard competitiveness as vital for the long-term health of a country\u2019s economy as it empowers businesses to achieve sustainable growth, generate jobs and, ultimately, enhance the welfare of citizens.<\/p>\n

The IMD World Competitiveness Rankings incorporate 235 indicators from each of the 63 ranked economies.<\/p>\n

The ranking takes into account a wide range of \u201chard\u201d statistics such as unemployment, GDP and government spending on health and education, as well as \u201csoft\u201d data from an Executive Opinion Survey covering topics such as social cohesion, globalisation and corruption.<\/p>\n

This information feeds into four categories \u2013 economic performance, infrastructure, government efficiency and business efficiency \u2013 to give a final score for each country. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for competitiveness, but the best performing countries tend to score well across all four categories.<\/p>\n

Switzerland climbed to fourth place from fifth, helped by economic growth, the stability of the Swiss franc and high-quality infrastructure. The Alpine economy ranked top for university and management education, health services and quality of life.<\/p>\n

On economic performance alone – which measures the competitive strengths of a country’s domestic economy and its macroeconomic performance – the US is ahead of China Mainland, Qatar, Luxembourg and Singapore.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Europe<\/strong><\/p>\n

Competitiveness across Europe has struggled to gain ground with most economies on the decline or standing still. The Nordics, traditionally a powerhouse region for competitiveness, have failed to make significant progress this year, while ongoing uncertainty over Brexit has seen the United Kingdom fall from 20th to 23rd.<\/p>\n

The biggest climber for the region, Ireland, rose five places to 7th as business conditions improved alongside a strengthening economy.<\/p>\n

According to the data, Ireland leads the way globally for investment incentives, the handling of public sector contracts and areas such as image, branding and talent management. Portugal posted the biggest fall in the region, down six places to 39th \u2013 a reversal from gains made in the previous year.<\/p>\n

For South Africa<\/strong>, an inferior score for infrastructure \u2013 especially in health, education and energy \u2013 wiped out improvements in the business landscape as the country dipped to 56th from 53rd previously.<\/p>\n

Venezuela remains anchored to the bottom of the ranking, hit by inflation, poor access to credit and a weak economy. The South American economy ranks the lowest for three out of four of the main criteria groups \u2013 economic performance, government efficiency and infrastructure.<\/p>\n

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Read: South Africa\u2019s economy may be nearing the end of its slump: economist<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Singapore has ranked as the world\u2019s most competitive economy for the first time since 2010, according to the IMD World Competitiveness Rankings, overtaking the United States which slipped down to third.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":320074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[26,14056],"class_list":["post-320070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-headline","tag-imd-world-competitiveness-rankings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320070"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":320084,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320070\/revisions\/320084"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}