Singapore Loses its Top Spot in Global Competitiveness Study, Now Ranks 5th

06/17/2021

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Sue-Ann Tan | The Straits Times

Singapore has tumbled from its top spot as the world’s most competitive economy to fifth place, but remains Asia’s top performing economy.

The Republic ranked first in the past two years of the Institute for Management Development (IMD) World Competitiveness Ranking, whose latest list was released on Thursday (June 17).

IMD is based in Switzerland and Singapore.

Switzerland topped the league table, followed by Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands.

IMD said: “Singapore managed to top the economic performance factor, one of four factors in the ranking, but fell to ninth in global business efficiency and 11th in global infrastructure.

“It ran into problems with job losses, lack of productivity and the economic impact of the pandemic. Similar to other countries that declined, Singapore experienced a shrinkage in its economic activity, in particular, a sharp decline in employment growth, and a sizeable worsening in public finances due to an increase in both government deficit and public debt.”

But Singapore did well with international trade and technological infrastructure, ranking first in both, IMD said.

It also ranked highly in international investment and business legislation.

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