Singapore retains top spot as world's most competitive economy

Singapore has retained its top spot as the world's most competitive economy in the latest edition of the IMD World Competitiveness Ranking.

The country kept the top slot for a second straight year in the annual list of 63 economies, which analyses their ability to generate prosperity.

The factors behind Singapore's success include its strong economic performance, which stems from robust international trade and investment, employment and labour market measures.

IMD noted the relative ease of setting up business, the availability of skilled labour and cutting-edge technological infrastructure in Singapore.

Stable performances in both Singapore's education system and technological infrastructure - telecommunications, Internet bandwidth speed and high-tech exports - also played key roles, it said.

Making up the top five after Singapore were Denmark, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Hong Kong (China). As a group, they illustrate the strength of many small economies amid the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the Institute for Management Development (IMD), which is based in Lausanne, Switzerland, said in a statement on Tuesday (June 16).

The rankings are based on responses in the first quarter of 2020 from business executives on questions about how they perceive their country's economy and hard data from 2019./.

VNA