Singapore is the world’s most competitive economy now, according to the Global Competitiveness Index 2019 released today.
Singapore overtookd the United States (US) which fell to second place in the ranking from first in 2018.
Hong Kong and Netherlands made significant improvement in their rankings by reaching third and fourth positions respectively from their earlier positions of seventh and sixth in 2018.
Position of Switzerland declined to fifth from previous position of fourth in the past year.
Ranking of Japan also dropped to sixth from previous fifth.
Germany which was third in the past year’s ranking sharply declined to seventh position while United Kingdom also dropped to ninth from eight position in 2018.
Position of Denmark remained unchanged at 10th in the index that maps the competitiveness landscape of 141 economies through 103 indicators organised into 12 themes.
The index is included in the Global Competitiveness Report which is the flagship publication of the World Economic Forum (WEF).
According to the latest report, Asia-Pacific is the most competitive region in the world, followed closely by Europe and North America.
Most of the South Asian countries have lost their last year’s positions except Sri Lanka and Nepal as both the countries jumped by one position (84th & 108th).
India slipped by as high as 10 positions to 68th in the current index from previous year’s 58th position.
Pakistan’s position further deteriorated to 110th from 017th in the past year.
In South East Asia, Vietnam jumped by 10 notches while Cambodia by four positions to become 67th and 106th competitive economy in the world now.
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