Switzerland remains in the top three for the most competitive countries

Switzerland has finished in third place in the?IMD World Competetiveness Ranking 2023. The country has therefore lost one place on the previous year’s ranking. In 2021, Switzerland was actually ranked in top spot. As was the case last year, Denmark is again ranked in first place overall, with Ireland ranked second after rising by nine places. The top three are all small economies “that make good use of their access to markets and trading partners”, further details of which can be found in a?press release?covering the most recent rankings.

Switzerland’s place in the top three is down to its “strong performance across all competitiveness factors measured”. It is still in top spot for the criteria of government efficiency and infrastructure. However, in terms of business efficiency, Switzerland has dropped from fourth to seventh place, although it did record a huge improvement from 30th to 18th place for economic performance.

These rankings were compiled for the 35th time by the World Competitiveness Center (WCC) of the Lausanne and Singapore-based International Institute for Management and Leadership Courses (IMD), in conjunction with a global network of?partner institutes?in 56 countries. According to the information, the rankings and subcategories are based on a total of 336 assessed criteria.

Indonesia, which jumped ten places to 34th, made the biggest improvement in this year’s rankings. Belgium (13th) and Czech Republic (26th) each improved by eight places. Latvia suffered the greatest fall, dropping from 35th place to be ranked 51st this year. The USA is ranked in 9th place, with Germany in 22nd (-7 places), Austria ranked 24th (-4 places) and France in 33rd (-5 places), while Italy remains down in 41st position.