Malta down two places in Global Competitiveness Index 2019

Malta has lost two places in the Global Competitiveness Index published by the rich nations’ club World Economic Forum.

Covering 141 economies, the GCI claims to measure national competitiveness by creating indexes that measure a set of institutions, policies and factors to determine a country’s level of productivity.

Malta is now ranked the 38th most competitive country in the world, down two places from 2018, after losing 0.2 points to get a score of 68.5. It ranked 19th out of the EU bloc measured by the GCI.

Malta however was ranked top country for macro-economic stability, its best performing indicator, and 26th globally for best healthcare. These were among the 12 underlying indicators that make up the global score.

Overall, Malta surpassed Lithuania, which climbed one step to 39, and fell below Poland, which stayed put in 37th position. The most competitive nations were Singapore, which pipped the United States, which fell second, followed by Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Japan.

In 2016, Malta climbed eight places to 40th.

The devil is in the detail, however: when all the underlying indexes are broken down, slippage occurred across 39 of the 103 individual indexes used to calculate the overall GCI – these included indexes on organised crime, reliability of police services, judicial independence, freedom of the press, burden of government regulation, legal frameworks, incidence of corruption; while other indexes on social capital, infrastructure, air services, internet connectivity, schooling, and women in the workforce all increased.

Despite being the largest economy in the European Union, Germany fell in competitiveness, according to the report, which demoted the EU leader four places, coming in as the seventh-most competitive economy. Out of the 103 indicators for the report, Germany received lower scores in 53 areas this year.

The WEF is as a not-for-profit foundation established in 1971 and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, which organises the annual Davos meeting for world leaders and billionaires. The WEF is funded by its 1,000 member companies, typically global enterprises with more than $5 billion in turnover, with so called strategic partners paying memberships of over $600,000.