Denmark grabs the top spotwhile Australia makes a comeback in the World Competitiveness Yearbook.
Certain Asian countries aren’t as competitive as they once were prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the latest issue of the International Institute for Management Development’s (IMD) annual World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY), there was quite a shakeup in the overall rankings from 2021 to 2022:
- Japan’s overall rating fell from 31 to 34.
- Indonesia’s overall rating fell from 37 to 44.
- Kazakhstan’s overall rating fell from 35 to 43.
- Malaysia’s overall rating fell from 25 to 32.
Australia, meanwhile, jumped up three spots to number 19. The country previously received its lowest ever competitiveness ranking in 25 years in 2021.
“Australia’s terms of trade driven by strong commodity prices, employment numbers and pandemic recovery have saved the day – ensuring our international competitiveness ranking improved and did not slip further,” Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) CEO Melinda Cilento told Bloomberg.
Australia’s worst result was in the entrepreneurship category, where it ranked 61. Australia also dropped from number 20 to 41 when it came to workplace productivity.
Denmark, which sits on top of the economic competitiveness ranking, takes the lead for the first time in the IMD World Competitiveness Ranking.
“Denmark has played extremely aggressively on the sustainability front and benefits from being a small country in the European market,” Professor Arturo Bris, Director of the IMD World Competitiveness Center, which creates the ranking, explained. “Operating within that framework has allowed it to announce aggressive reductions.”
WCY was first published back in 1989. It serves as a comprehensive annual report and worldwide reference point on the competitiveness of 63 economies. It provides benchmarking and trends, as well as statistics and survey data.
