Global Competitiveness Index of the World Economic Forum

On September 5, 2012 Analytical Group of the World Economic Forum has published global competitiveness index 2012-2013. This year index included 144 countries, against 142 countries in the last year.
Global Competitiveness Index is based on 111 variables, reflecting the competitiveness of countries in detail. All variables are grouped into 12 benchmarks, which demonstrate national competitiveness. Official statistics and surveys of large companies serve as a source of the rating assessment.

For the fourth consecutive year Switzerland is the top leader in the global competitiveness index. Singapore and Finland are among the three leaders. Northern and Western Europe countries continue to dominate in the top ten list: the top lines are occupied by Sweden (4th), Netherlands (5th), Germany (6th). The United States has dropped from the last year's 5th place to the 7th.

In this year, Russia got down from the occupied in 2011 66th place to the 67th. Compared with the previous year, the position of Russia is deteriorated in terms of such indicators as the quality of institutions, effectiveness of commodity and services markets, labor market efficiency, financial market development, business competitiveness and innovation capacity. A noticeable improvement occurred only in two indicators - the macroeconomic environment and the technological level. Like a year earlier, in the opinion of the Russian businessmen, the key challenges of the national economic development are the corruption and inefficiency of the government bureaucracy, as well as high tax rates. However, this year, there noted significantly increased concern about the availability of sufficient funding and qualified labor resources. All these problems in Russia are hampering implementation of its competitive advantages, such as relatively low levels of public debt and budget deficit, as well as the large volume of domestic market.

 

This year became a breakthrough to Kazakhstan, which has risen from the 72nd to the 5th position. This upsurge reflects the progress in a number of indicators, the most important among which are the improvement of macroeconomic stability (the 16th position by this indicator in the global competitiveness index) and the level of technological development (promotion from the 87th place to the 55th). Nevertheless, there are still serious issues related to healthcare and primary education, and despite an upgraded rating, indicators of financial market development, competitiveness, innovation capacity.

 

N.P. Volovik, Head of Foreign Trade Department