IMD World Competitiveness Booklet 2021

Eastern Europe remains stable with an average position of 43 rd which is similar to the past 4 years. Ex-CIS and Central Asia economies instead experience a rebound in overall competitiveness reaching an average position of 46 th . The improvement recorded between 2020 and 2021 brings the average competitiveness of countries in this area back to their 2017 level. Finally, South America experiences a reversal in the competitiveness improvements achieved between 2019 Figure 5 illustrates the variation in the overall competitiveness ranking among the countries in our sample. In Appendix 1 , we also include the overall ranking changes in the last 3 years (2019- 2021, per country). Appendix 2 shows the ranking variations of the studied economies at the factor level in the years 2020-21. 3. Country Level Trends

and 2020. Over the past year, countries in this sub-region lowered their average competitiveness levels by 3 places, declining from 54 th to 57 th position. In Figure 4 we present the sub- regional average rankings at the competitiveness factor level for 2021. It shows this year’s dominance of the Eastern Asia and Western Europe sub- regions and the weakness experienced by South America at this level of analysis.

High Ranked Economies Switzerland leads the ranking this year, improving from 3 rd place. It is followed by Sweden which also moves up from 6 th . Denmark ranks 3 rd (down from 2 nd ), the Netherlands remains at 4 th and Singapore drops to 5 th (from 1 st ). While Norway moves up one place to 6 th , Hong Kong SAR drops to 7 th (from 5 th ). Taiwan

Figure 5. Improvements/declines in overall competitiveness by country 2020-2021

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IMD WORLD COMPETITIVENESS BOOKLET 2021