New Zealand 19th most competitive

New Zealand is the 19th most competitive nation in the world, according to the Global Competitiveness Index.

The Global Competitiveness Index is a ranking of economic competitiveness, based on economic data and surveys of large businesses in 140 countries.

The Index shows New Zealand dropping from 18th place in 2018 to 19th place in 2019.

This year the Index shows New Zealand gaining 1st place for macroeconomic stability, Budget transparency, corporate governance, time needed to start a business and social capital.

New Zealand’s rankings improved slightly for factors including IT adoption, competition in services, market capitalisation, venture capital availability, R&D expenditure, growth of innovative companies, workers’ rights and ratio of female to male salaried workers.

New Zealand’s rankings declined slightly for factors including infrastructure, property rights, burden of government regulation, IP protection, skills, and ability to hire labour.

BusinessNZ Chief Executive Kirk Hope said the 2019 Index highlighted many of the strengths of the New Zealand economy and business environment, but also underlined the requirement for more infrastructure investment, less unnecessary regulation and a better skills framework in order to maintain high competitiveness rankings.

The top ten countries in the Global Competitiveness Index this year are Singapore, US, Hong Kong, Netherlands, Switzerland, Japan, Germany, Sweden, UK and Denmark, while Australia ranks 16th.

The complete results of the 2018 Global Competitiveness Index are on https://www.weforum.org/reports

ENDS

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