You are here

Cyprus losing ground in competitiveness

30/09/2015 13:46
Cyprus fell by seven places in the ranking of the competitiveness index of the World Economic Forum, despite a significant improvement in the macroeconomic environment.

Two and a half years after the beginning of the adjustment program, Cyprus seems to be losing its competitiveness in infrastructure, innovation and on issues related to the financial sector.

Cyprus slipped to the 65th place in the competitiveness index of the WEF for 2015-2016 recording a score of 4.23, compared to the 58th position it held last year.

Cyprus slipped despite a significant improvement in the macroeconomic environment. The improvement brought Cyprus 25 places higher as regards this subcategory, but this was not enough to change the overall negative picture.

The index shows the performance of countries on 12 pillars: institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, health and primary education, higher education and training, goods market efficiency, labor market efficiency, financial market development, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication and innovation.

The report on Cyprus was prepared with the input of members of the European University (Pambos Papageorgiou) and the Bank of Cyprus (Maria Georgiadou and Charis Pouagkare).

Negative data for Cyprus include the size of the market (112th position against 115th last year) and the development of the financial market (108th position) which fell by 25 points.

According to the report, Cyprus holds a high position on issues relating to health and primary education (17th place), but is losing ground compared to last year when it held the 9th place.

Cyprus holds a high position on the ranks for goods market efficiency (28th place) and labor market efficiency (34th place).

Moreover, Cyprus ranks 4th in higher education and training while it holds the 45th place in technological readiness.

Switzerland, Singapore and the US hold the top positions this year.

Greece remained at the 81st place.

Switzerland retained the first place this year followed by Singapore and the US which also retained the same positions as last year.

The top ten in competitiveness is completed by Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, Hong Kong, Finland, Sweden and Britain.