The Czech Republic has been crowned the most competitive economy in Central Europe and the 32nd in the world by the World Economic Forum’s 2019 Global Competitiveness Index (GCI).

2019 Global Competitiveness Index

This year, the Global Competitiveness Report ranked 141 economies, accounting for 99 percent of the world’s GDP, according to 103 individual factors organized into 12 pillars that were weighted equally. These pillars were: institutions, infrastructure, ICT adoption, macroeconomic stability, health, skills, product market, labor market, financial system, market size, business dynamism, and innovation capability.

The Czech Republic fares particularly well in the area of macro-economic stability, infrastructure and human capital skills.

This year’s competitiveness of the country is again hampered by poor infrastructure, lack of qualified workforce, state of institutions and lagging behind in information technology.

Compared to the top 15 EU countries, the Czech Republic is ranked 1st in macroeconomic stability. But lags behind in other eleven indicators like market size, business dynamism or innovation capability.

WEF has been measuring countries’ competitiveness since 1979, and defines it as: “the set of institutions, policies, and factors that determine the level of productivity of a country.” Other definitions exist, but all generally include the word “productivity”.

2019 top 10 most competitive economies in the world:

This year’s top 10 most competitive economies are as follows:

1. Singapore
2. United States
3. Hong Kong SAR
4. Netherlands
5. Switzerland
6. Japan
7. Germany
8. Sweden
9. United Kingdom
10. Denmark

The least 10 competitive countries in the world:

1. Chad
2. Yemen
3. Congo
4. Haiti
5. Mozambique
6. Angola
7. Burundi
8. Mauritania
9. Venezuela
10. Madagascar

For more information, take a look at the WEF report.