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Azerbaijan’s global competitiveness ranking up 18 places to 51st: WEF

08 September 2009 15:59 (UTC +04:00)

Bakuâ€“ APA. Azerbaijan’s overall ranking in the Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010 is up 15 notches to 51st place, compared to last year, according to a report released Tuesday by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF).

The report attributes Azerbaijanâ€™s significant progress to the fact that the country has enjoyed macroeconomic stability, high national accumulations, large budget surplus and low government debt.

Besides, time required for starting a business dropped to 16 from 30 days and number of documents required fell to 6 from 13.
A total of 133 economies worldwide were evaluated in this year’s report.
The U.S. as the world’s largest economy lost last year’s strong lead, slipping to number two for the first time since the introduction of the index in its current form in 2004.
Switzerland topped the overall rankings, followed by the United States, Singapore, Sweden and Denmark.
The rankings from sixth to 11th places are Finland, Germany, Japan, Canada, the Netherlands and Hong Kong.
China’s ranking, meanwhile, is up from 30th to 29th.
The World Economic Forum’s global competitiveness report 2009/2010 showed economies with a large focus on financial services such as the U.S., Britain or Iceland were the losers of the crisis.
The WEF bases its assessment on a range of factors, key for any country to prosper. The index includes economic data such as growth but also health data or the number of internet users.
The study also factors in a survey among business leaders, assessing for example the government’s efficiency or the flexibility of the labor market.