IMD World Competitiveness Booklet 2023

Figure 5: Average ranking positions by region in Overall Competitiveness 2019-2023. Source: IMD World Competitiveness Center (2023)

inflation, and geopolitical conflicts are the top three concerns for executives residing and operating in all regions covered by the yearbook, except for South American executives who see remote and hybrid work models as the third most important trend in place of geopolitical conflicts. Interestingly, environmental issues and climate change are still – as in 2022 – considered of secondary impor tance in 2023, behind geopolitical and macroeconomic trends affecting global markets. Just over a fifth (22.7%) and 8.7% of executives surveyed consider the transition to zero emissions and the impact of global warming, respectively, to be relevant trends in the short term. A sense that environmental sustain ability constitutes a secondary priority for companies in the face of pressing issues Regional competitiveness trends 2023 The polycrisis’ effects on global markets have impacted competitiveness levels worldwide considerably in 2023. In partic ular, rises in energy prices and subse quent growth in inflation are creating winners and losers. Figure 3 shows that

brought about by geopolitical changes and inflation also emerges when looking at what executives prioritize in their everyday business decisions. Figure 2 captures the results of a question in the executive survey on whether exec utives thought their companies would be willing to sacrifice profit or growth at the expense of environmental sustainability and social responsibility in the event it were not possible to pursue the two. A first observation here is that around one-third of the sample (2,000 executives), chose not to answer this question. Among those who answered it, 55% stated that environmental and social responsibility would come before profit and growth. Nevertheless, 45% stated that they would not be willing to sacrifice growth, or that they didn’t know.

inflation impacted regional competitive ness scores with countries experiencing the highest inflation rates globally (mostly Eastern European economies) losing ground in 2023 over those with low levels

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