Switzerland has retained the title of the “most competitive” country in the world.
It is the seventh consecutive year topped the Work Economic Forum’s global competitiveness chart.
The small country is not just the maker of delicious chocolate and fonue, but received the study’s best score for innovation “thanks to its world-class research institutions, high spending on research and development by companies and strong cooperation between the academic world and the private sector,” the report said.
Also in its favour were its high level of business sophistication, efficient labour market which boasts a high level of collaboration between employees and bosses, and transparency in public institutions.
Portugal lumbered into 39th place, dragged down in the ratings particularly by its “macroeconomic environment”, which is to say the performance, structure and decision-making of the economy as a whole rather than individual market sectors.
Here it ranked an exceedingly low 127th out of 140 countries.
Another very low score, 107th, was attained because of underdevelopment of the country’s financial market.
A downward pull was also exerted by some inefficiencies in Portugal’s labour market, leaving it in 66th place.
Following close on Swiss heels and comprising the top five were Singapore, the US, Germany and the Netherlands
Guinea ranked as the least competitive country of the 140 nations surveyed, ahead of Chad and Mauritania.
The report concluded that more competitive countries do better during demanding economic crises and noted that the Swiss economy had had only a mild setback throughout the Great Recession whereas Greece, ranked 81st, suffered 25% economic contraction and high unemployment.
The UK ranked 10th in the world, France took the 22nd place, and neighbouring Spain was 33rd.
The study considered countries’ institutions (Portugal – 39th), infrastructure (23rd), macroeconomic situation (127th), health and education (31st). Other so-called pillars under the microscope were labour efficiency (66th), technology (26th), business sophistication (41st) and innovation (28th).
