SA ‘s competitiveness drops amid Covid-19 pandemic: South Africa’s international competitiveness ranking has dropped further in 2021 to 62, out of 64 countries rated according to the 2021 World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) produced by the Swiss based Institute of Management Development (IMD).
The Institute of Management Development (IMD) ‘s World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) is an annual report that ranks the international competitiveness of 64 selected countries and is recognised internationally as the leading Survey of competitiveness between nations. The rankings are drawn from a combination of hard data and an Executive Opinion Survey. Productivity SA is the information partner institute for the IMD in South Africa.
Productivity SA is a government entity tasked with the promotion of employment and productivity growth within South Africa. The vision of Productivity SA is to lead and inspire a productive and competitive South Africa and its mission is to improve productivity by diagnosing, advising, implementing, monitoring and evaluating solutions aimed at improving South Africa’s sustainable growth, development and employment through increased competitiveness.
According to the Chief Economist at Productivity SA, Dr Leroi Raputsoane, “Covid-19 pandemic has presented countries with new and far reaching challenges for their local economies. Over and above the health crisis wrought by the pandemic, Covid-19 has diminished the ability of countries to facilitate a conducive environment in which business can thrive”.
The Institute of Management Development (IMD) ‘s World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) evaluates each country’s data based on about 346 distinct criteria, which are grouped into 4 factors, where South Africa performed as follows among the 64 selected countries:
• Economic performance (61st)
• Government efficiency (61st)
• Business efficiency (58th)
• Infrastructure (61st)
The Institute of Management Development (IMD)‘s World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) shows that the following countries topped the global competitiveness rankings
• Switzerland (1st)
• Sweden (2nd)
• Denmark (3rd)
• Netherlands (4th)
• Singapore (5th)
These countries show common characteristic of consistency performing well across all the competitiveness 4 factors that comprise Economic performance, Government efficiency, Business efficiency and Infrastructure.
The Institute of Management Development (IMD)‘s World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) further shows that the BRICS countries performed as follows
• Brazil (57th)
• Russia (45th)
• India (43rd)
• China (20th)
• South Africa (62st)
According to the Institute of Management Development (IMD) ‘s World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY), the fall in South Africa’s global competitiveness ranking was underpinned by the following challenges
• Deteriorating headline and youth unemployment
• Rising public debt levels amid a shrinking fiscal space
• Lack of decisive plans to revive the struggling economy
• Ongoing electricity supply problems and rolling blackouts
• Slow vaccination rates to fast track post Covid-19 recovery
According to the IMD ‘s Professor Arturo Bris, “Competitiveness provides the framework to quantify the outcome of dealing with the challenges, such as, international trade and investment, employment, the openness, political stability, etc. from a country perspective. Ultimately, it allows the IMD to recognise the factors that facilitate prosperity, and this is how the institute expects its rankings to be used and interpreted that competitiveness is both a tool and an objective of economic policy”.
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