Austria’s international competitiveness has declined. This is evident from the ranking of the Lausanne business school IMD, in which Austria ranks 24th out of 67 countries evaluated. Five years ago the country was in 16th place.
Criteria include health and environment, international trade, productivity, social stability, science and education. In this comparison, top places in the EU are achieved by Denmark, Ireland and the Netherlands outside the EU, Singapore is in first place and Switzerland (second place) is the leader. Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia are at the bottom of the list in Europe.
This time Austria was able to score points in areas such as health and environment, but also in international trade. The main negative outliers are the checkpoints and “attitudes and values”. The IMD’s partner organization in this country is the Industrial Association (ID).
This is what competitive strength looks like according to this ranking.
Productivity hardly increased
When Europe is considered as a whole, the region ranks second after East Asia. Since the turn of the millennium, productivity per employed person has hardly increased. This is in contrast to China, the Middle East and African countries. However, the economic gains there did not lead to higher wages, better infrastructure or better health care.
According to the IMD, rich countries certainly face competition from emerging emerging markets. Successful countries would be those that adapt to the digital revolution and the shift to a circular economy with a lower carbon footprint while generating prosperity for their people.
According to a recent survey, the majority (55 percent) of executives from 67 countries see artificial intelligence as the biggest risk to their business – closely followed by global economic stagnation and geopolitical conflict.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
