The global competitiveness index 2017-2018
Discover the 2017-2018 edition’s rankings, key findings, and your economy’s scorecard in The Global Competitiveness Report.
Featuring the Global Competitiveness Index, this World Economic Forum Report assesses the landscape of 137 economies, providing unique insight into the drivers of their productivity and prosperity.
Key findings
- Canada ranks 14th this year, a slight improvement over last year’s ranking. The main changes with respect to last year are in the efficiency of government spending (where it falls 13 places) and the macroeconomic environment (where it falls six spots), reflecting the negative international shocks via terms-of-trade deterioration and their impact on government revenues and national savings. Uncertainties regarding the United States’ trade policy present challenges to Canada, with trade disruptions potentially affecting regional value chains.
- Canada’s main challenges to continue making progress toward the top 10 lie in the macroeconomic environment pillar, ranking 47th; the quantity of education sub-pillar, where it ranks 28th; and the technological readiness, business sophistication, and innovation pillars, where it ranks in the twenties. On the other hand, Canada ranks a high 7th in labour market efficiency, driven mainly by the efficient use of talent (3rd).
- The top five most problematic factors for doing business in Canada were:
- inefficient government bureaucracy
- tax rates, inefficient capacity to innovate
- inadequate supply of infrastructure
- tax regulations
- From a global perspective, the most pressing issues related to the health of the economy are:
- ten years after the crisis, the financial sector remains vulnerable
- more countries are able to innovate, but they must do more to spread the benefits
- both labour market flexibility and worker protection are needed to ensure shared prosperity