Chiswick Marketing The WEF report contains some interesting data. All of these stats are from 133 countries included in the report.
Global Competitiveness Index
GCI 2009–2010…………………………………………………13th out of 133 countries
GCI 2008–2009 (out of 134)………………………………..12th
GCI 2007–2008 (out of 131)…………………………………9
Basic requirements…………………………………………….26
1st pillar: Institutions …………………………………………21
2nd pillar: Infrastructure…………………………………….20
3rd pillar: Macroeconomic stability………………………71
4th pillar: Health and primary education ……………….23
Efficiency enhancers…………………………………………….8
5th pillar: Higher education and training………………..18
6th pillar: Goods market efficiency……………………….20
7th pillar: Labor market efficiency …………………………8
8th pillar: Financial market sophistication……………..24
9th pillar: Technological readiness…………………………8
10th pillar: Market size…………………………………………6
Innovation and sophistication factors …………………..14
11th pillar: Business sophistication………………… …….12
12th pillar: Innovation………………………………… ……15
A lot of this doesn’t look too bad. Then you go to the next page and see the detail:
Pillar 3:
Government surplus/deficit* ……..117th in the world (out of 133)
National savings rate*………………….92
Inflation* ………………………………….18
Interest rate spread* ………………….17
Government debt*………………………96
8th pillar: Financial market sophistication
Soundness of banks ……………….126th
There is loads more detail in this report, but I didn’t read it. I prefer to keep my sanity by sticking my head in the sand.