Australia’s competitiveness ranking rises

Australia is the seventh most competitive country into the world, according to this year’s World Competitiveness Yearbook, compiled by the international business school IMD.

Australia’s ranking has risen from 12th last year out of 55 companies surveyed. The country also scored well in terms of resilience of the economy to economic cycles, continued political stability, solid education standards and general awareness among Australians that further social and economic reform is needed.

But it wasn’t all good news. Despite the commodity boom, Australia posted low scores for international trade (44th out of 55) and infrastructure (22nd out of 55). Other weaknesses include public finance and the labour market.

The US is the top-ranked country in the survey, followed closely by Singapore and then Hong Kong. But the Yearbook authors say the dominance of the US, which has held the number one spot since 1993, may be about to end, with structural problems and a possible recession weighing heavily on the American ranking.

The biggest improvers on the list were Eastern European countries including Poland and Slovenia.