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World Economic Forum’s
2011 – 2012 Global Competiveness Index
A ranking put to the test by the current economic climate
Edouard Mathieu
Associate Researcher at HEC Executive Education
Economist at DATAR1
Bertrand Moingeon
Professor and
Deputy Dean, HEC Paris.
Director of the HEC Europe Institute
The competitiveness of a country is in principle a very structural notion. The annual World Economic
Forum (WEF) ranking summarizes the performances of countries in areas with slow variations such as:
institutions, infrastructure, health and education systems, the fluidity and efficiency of markets, corporate
excellence, etc. In this model, the present economic situation only appears in one « pillar of
competitiveness » amongst twelve: the macroeconomic environment. However, a lot of the data used
was derived from a perception poll carried out in the spring in each country by a partner institute such as
HEC for France and perceptions can change more quickly than reality with the influence of a turbulent
period or various important events. It is particularly striking in the 2011 ranking.
The Global competitiveness of nations
according to the World Economic Forum
2011 edition
2010 edition
score (1-7)
2,0
2,5
3,0
3,5
4,0
4,5
5,0
5,5
6,0
5,7
1.Switzerland
5,6
2.Singapore
5,6
2011-2012 rank of selected countries
3.Sweden
5.United States
5,4
6.Germany
5,4
9.Japan
5,4
5,4
10.United Kingdom
5,2
14.Qatar
5,1
18.France
4,9
26.China
4,8
EUROPEAN UNION*
4,5
40.Tunisia
41.Poland
4,5
43.Italy
4,4
4,3
53.Brazil
4,3
56.India
4,2
SOUTH. MEDITER.
4,0
EASTERN EUROPE
3,9
90.Greece
3,6
AFRICA
142.Chad
2,9
The trio at the top remain the same:
Switzerland, Singapore and Sweden.
However, a period perceived as good,
such as by the Swiss, influences the
opinions of business communities and
therefore have a tendency to be very
positive which increases their scores
further.
The United States continue to descend
in the ranking to the fifth place. The
objective difficulties of the country –
notably financial and budgetary –
render American business people very
pessimistic in their responses, with
evaluations decreasing in almost every
area.
Several oil countries have progressed
in the ranking, due to the combined
effect of the price of petrol, real
progress and optimism in the business
communities that responded to the
WEF poll. It is the case of Saudi
Arabia and Qatar that move up
respectively three and four places.
* European Union: non weighted average of the 27 member states' scores
Source : The Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012 , World Economic Forum
1
Délégation interministérielle à l’aménagement du territoire et à l’attractivité régionale.
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401292779
The « Arab Spring » was only just beginning when the survey was being carried out. If the long-term
consequences turn out to be positive, they will immediately translate into a backward step by the
countries concerned by the ranking. The intrinsic uncertainties of events such as these and a more critical
eye explain, for example, that Tunisia has moved from the 32nd to the 40th place. Amongst the emerging
countries, China and Brazil continue to progress. China is now 27th, which puts it ahead of the European
Union average. The European Union shows very dispersed results, with six members in the top 10,
whereas Greece continues to descend the ranking to the 90th place.
The importance of France and Germany in the Euro zone and the improved German macroeconomic
performance, have given rise to several comparative studies2.
Benchmarking France and Germany
versus the leading country in each field of competitiveness (1-to-7 scale)
France
Germany
Leading country
1.Institutions (Singapore)
7
12.Innovation (Sw itzerland)
6
2.Infrastructure (Hong Kong)
5
11.Business sophistication
(Japan)
4
3
3.Macroeconomic stability
(Brunei)
2
1
10.Market size
(USA)
0
9.Technological readiness
(Sw itzerland)
4.Health and primary education
(Finland)
5.Higher education
and training (Finland)
8.Financial market
development (Singapore)
6.Goods market
efficiency (Singapore)
7.Labor market
efficiency (Sw itzerland)
Source: World Economic Forum, The Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012
The WEF analyses underline similarities between the two economies (see graph). Moreover their scores
are generally stable between 2010 and 2011 even if Germany loses a place and France three places in the
ranking. Thus the two countries are at the top of the ranking concerning infrastructures (with scores not
very different from the world leader, Hong Kong), health and primary education (leader: Finland), but it
finds itself at the back of the pack – for different reasons – concerning labour market efficiency (leader:
Switzerland). Their performances are also close in terms of real estate market efficiency (leader:
Singapore), technological agility including information and communication technology (leader:
Switzerland), institutions (leader: Singapore) and size of market (leader: United States). But, France is
lagging compared to Germany not only in macroeconomic performance (leader: Brunei), but also, to a
lesser extent, in higher education, innovation and business sophistication (leaders: Finland, Switzerland
and Japan).
2
See for example the report: Mettre un terme à la divergence de compétitivité entre la France et l'Allemagne, COEREXECODE, dir. Michel Didier, January 2011. The information in the WEF survey, more detailed than what we were able to
report here, converge generally with the observations of COE-REXECODE.
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