Prosperity Index: Czech Republic is 9th Most Advanced Economy in EU

The Czech Republic is the ninth most advanced economy in the European Union. Sweden ranks first, followed by Germany and Denmark.

This is according to the first pillar of the new Prosperity Index focused on the economy, compiled by analysts at Česká spořitelna and Europe in Data.

The Czech Republic can achieve a better ranking by investing in changing the structure of the economy, innovation, and education.

David Navrátil, the chief economist at Česká spořitelna, added that the Czech Republic’s strongest points include economic complexity (ranked 2nd) or the investment-to-GDP ratio (ranked 3rd).

On the other hand, weaker results are in terms of the share of national income in domestic product or the level of value-added of the economy.

A higher level of investment does not automatically mean a higher rate of modernisation of the economy, especially in comparison with other countries. This can be seen, for example, in the robotization of the Czech economy.

The number of robots per worker in the Czech Republic is growing, but not enough. This is why the Czech Republic has fallen out of the top 20 most robotized economies in the world.

Currently, Germany is the European leader in robotization with 371 robots per 10,000 employees, followed by Sweden with 289 and Denmark with 246 robots.

Another area in which the Czech Republic has large reserves is the digitization of public administration. The state’s investment in e-government has exceeded CZK 60 billion since 2016. Despite this, the Czech Republic is only one position better than Belarus in the international evaluation of e-government.

In the private business sector, the Czech Republic is at the top in many comparisons. For example, 83% of companies with ten or more employees had their own websites updated to 2021.

A third of companies offer the possibility to order goods online, which is the third-highest share in the EU. However, the situation is diametrically different in the public sector, where the Czech Republic is falling to 20th place in the EU. Malta is the number 1 in the ranking, followed by Estonia and Luxembourg.