NZ competitiveness
Stuff reports:
For the first time, New Zealand is ahead of Australia in the Global Competitive Index.
The annual report by the World Economic Forum shows New Zealand is 18th, up five places in the past year. Australia dropped one place to 21st.
New Zealand’s rise reflected a steady economic recovery and “prudent pro-growth policies”, said Oliver Hartwich, executive director of the New Zealand Initiative, which helped compile the survey data.
New Zealand was ranked among the top 10 in the world for the quality of its institutions, health and primary education, higher education, goods and labour market efficiency, and financial markets development, the report shows.
Hartwich cautioned against complacency. The country had failed to make any improvement on its innovation and business sophistication factors, ranking 27th globally, behind Puerto Rico and Qatar.
Switzerland, which was ranked second in the world for innovation and business sophistication, was named the most competitive economy in the world for a fifth year. The next most competitive countries were Finland, Japan, Germany, Sweden, the United States, the Netherlands, Israel, Taiwan and Britain.
Good to be improving. Global competitiveness is a key factor in prosperity – not increased barriers and destroying competition.
The full report is here. Our individual rankings are:
- Institutions 2nd
- Infrastructure 27th
- Macroeconomic environment 43rd
- Health and primary education 5th
- Higher education & training 9th
- Goods market efficiency 9th
- Labor market efficiency 8th
- Financial market development 4th
- Technological readiness 24th
- Market size 62nd
- Business sophistication 26th
- Innovation 26th
The most problematic factors for doing business were:
- Inadequate supply of infrastructure
- Inadequately educated workforce
- Insufficient capacity to innovate
- Inefficient government bureaucracy
- Access to financing
- Tax rates