Source: English.News.mn                Date: 21 September, 2010

Mongolia has been ranked 99th among 139 countries in the just released Global Competitiveness Report 2010-2011 published by the World Economic Forum. This is a significant improvement on its last year’s performance when it was put 117th among 134 countries, and is an acknowledgement of the Government’s efforts to improve several aspects of the business environment and to reduce macroeconomic imbalances.

Switzerland retains the top place it claimed last year from the USA, which now falls a further two places, overtaken by Sweden (2nd) and Singapore (3rd). Germany (5th) moves up two places, leading the Eurozone countries.

China (27th) continues to lead the way among large developing economies, improving by two more places this year, and solidifying its place among the top 30. Among the three other BRIC economies, India (51st), Brazil (58th), and Russia (63rd) remain stable. Several Asian economies perform strongly, with Japan (6th) and Hong Kong SAR (11th) also in the top 20. In Latin America, Chile (30th) is the highest ranked country.

The rankings are calculated from both publicly available data and the Executive Opinion Survey, a comprehensive annual survey conducted by the World Economic Forum together with its network of Partner Institutes (leading research institutes and business organizations) in the countries covered by the Report.

The Global Competitiveness Report’s competitiveness ranking is based on the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), developed for the World Economic Forum and introduced in 2004. The GCI is based on 12 pillars of competitiveness, providing a comprehensive picture of the competitiveness landscape in countries around the world at all stages of development. The pillars are: 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.

Mongolia’s macro economic stability score has risen to 4.9 from 3.9, mainly because of a lower budget deficit, reduced inflation, and higher foreign currency reserves. However, the score on financial market has fallen from 3.4 to 3.1, mainly because of lower access to credit, instability in the banking sector, and an underdeveloped capital market.