Singapore, Switzerland and Denmark were ranked as the most competitive nations in the World Competitiveness Ranking 2024.
This ranking is prepared by the Institute for Management Development (IMD).
Singapore’s competitiveness is recognized worldwide with strengths such as:
- Labor market.
- Technological infrastructure.
- Attitudes and values.
- Commercial infrastructure.
- Management practices.
- Business legislation.
- International investments.
Most competitive nations
Singapore reached the top of the ranking for the first time since 2020.
Switzerland also improved, regaining second place, and Denmark and Ireland fell to third and fourth place, respectively.
Switzerland has strengths such as its institutional framework, public finances, education, and health and environment.
Denmark is the most competitive economy in terms of social framework, productivity and efficiency and management practices.
While Hong Kong improved two positions and moved up to fifth place, Sweden gained the same number of places to sixth.
The United Arab Emirates moved up three places and returned to seventh place.
Taiwan (Chinese Taipei) dropped two positions, returning to eighth place, and the Netherlands also experienced a decline and fell to ninth place.
Finally, Norway gained four positions to return to the top 10.
Trends
At the macro level, rising geopolitical tensions are directly challenging the stability of the global economy.
According to IMD, these tensions can greatly exacerbate existing economic problems, such as inflation, extreme poverty and food insecurity, by increasing uncertainty and volatility in global markets.
Geopolitical tensions can also affect international trade and investment flows.
For example, continued trade frictions between the United States and China have the potential to profoundly disrupt global trade and damage the public finances of third countries.
In addition, trade fragmentation can disrupt the stability of the global economy, leading to socio-political tensions and polarization.
Business competitiveness
The IMD Global Competitiveness Ranking analyzes and ranks the ability of countries to create and maintain an environment that sustains business competitiveness.
It means that wealth creation is assumed to take place primarily at the enterprise level (whether private or state-owned). This field of research is called «enterprise competitiveness».