Nigeria is ranked 127th in the list of country’s economic competence, falling six steps from last year’s ranking of 121th according to the Global Competitive Report. This is coming as the nation battles with fixing critical infrastructure such as power and transportation network that suffered decades of neglect. African nations of South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Rwanda gave the continents its best representation at 54th, 76th and 80th respectively on the list.

The Global Competitiveness Report’s competitiveness ranking is based on the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), developed for the World Economic Forum. The GCI is based on 12 pillars of competitiveness, to provide a comprehensive picture of the competitiveness landscape in countries around the world at all stages of development. The pillars include institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, health and primary education, higher education and training; goods market efficiency, labour market efficiency, financial market development, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication, and innovation.

The rankings are calculated from both publicly available data and the Executive Opinion Survey, comprehensive annual survey conducted by the World Economic Forum together with its network of Partner Institutes (leading research institutes and business organisations) in the countries covered by the study.

Rising powers

Other new highlights of the report shows that as the US battles with economic challenges and fears of a double-dip recession, the world largest economy also slipped two notches off last year’s ranking of 2 to 4. The US was overtaken by Sweden and Singapore for the 2nd and 3rd placing, as Switzerland retained the position of world’s most competitive country.

Amongst the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China), China rose two places to 27th despite the massive growth in its economy, that let it overtake Japan as the world’s second largest economy. Brazil, Russia and India retained their position of last year.

Several Asian economies perform strongly, with Japan (6th) and Hong Kong (11th) also in the top 20. In Latin America, Chile (30th) is the highest ranked country, followed by Panama (53rd) Costa Rica (56th) and Brazil.

Several countries from the Middle East and North Africa region occupy the upper half of the rankings, led by Qatar (17th), Saudi Arabia (21st), Israel (24th), United Arab Emirates (25th), Tunisia (32nd), Kuwait (35th) and Bahrain (37th), with most Gulf States continuing their upward trend of recent years.

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