In a rather dramatic turnaround, India has climbed a spectacular 16 places to the 55th position among 140 economies in this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Competitiveness Index, ending five years of decline.
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Globally, economies are still struggling to shake off the 2008 financial crisis, according to the WEF.
The report cited strong infrastructure and a healthy workforce as reasons for Japan’s competitiveness.
“However, clouds are on the horizon [for Switzerland]”, WEF said in a statement.
The country had many other factors in its favour, including having the highest level of business sophistication and the most efficient labour market, featuring the highest level of collaboration between workers and employers.
The GCI is a comprehensive assessment of the competitiveness landscape of economies, providing insight into drivers of productivity and prosperity.
The report released on Wednesday states that Sub-Saharan Africa continues to grow close to 5%, but competitiveness and productivity remain low. China, the world’s No. 2 economy, trailed at 28th place, unchanged from 2014, the report showed. Côte d’Ivoire (91st) and Ethiopia (109th) excel as this year’s largest improvers in the region overall, the WEF said.
“Much of the progress can be attributed to a 16-place jump in one of our “efficiency enhancer” pillars, Technological Readiness, where the country jumps from 66 to 50″, read the World Economic Forum’s report.
“With geopolitical conflict and terrorism threatening to take an even bigger toll, countries in the region must focus on reforming the business environment and strengthening the private sector”, the WEF report said. The top-ranking countries all fare well in this regard.
However, Korea’s labor and financial markets are still falling behind, dragging the country’s ranking down.
“A failure to embrace long-term structural reforms that boost productivity and free up entrepreneurial talent is harming the global economy’s ability to improve living standards, solve persistently high unemployment and generate adequate resilience for future economic downturns”, the report’s authors stated.
First place in the GCI rankings, for the seventh consecutive year, goes to Switzerland.
In spite of a generally strong performance by Italy, the bel paese was badly let down in a few areas, which dragged down its overall score.
The new spot places the Philippines in the top third of the global survey a year ahead of the target set by Philippine agencies.
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According to the report, Malaysia’s competitiveness lies in goods market efficiency and financial market development pillars in which it is ranked in the top 10 at 6th and 9th positions, respectively.
