MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile’s drops in world competitiveness ranking but still top of Latam

High cost of communications and low levels of I+D weighed negatively

Chile fell from number 25 to number 28 on the World Competitiveness Yearbook that includes 58 countries. This is Chile’s worst position since 2000, when it ranked number 30. The highest position it has had is 18, in 2005.

The report is carried out yearly by the Institute for Management Development (IMD) based out of Switzerland, ranking 58 competing countries from lowest to highest. The participating countries are ranked based on their economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency and infrastructure.

Chile’s biggest flaw is in infrastructure, due to the high cost of communications and the low levels invested in Innovation and Development (I+D).

Enrique Manssur, director of the School of Economy for the University of Chile, said the decline in the ranking could be explained because of the improvement occurring in other countries. This can be applied to the earthquake that happened this year.

Despite this, Chile’s GDP actually grew by 1% this first quarter of the year when compared to last year’s. It is also worth noting that this time period is when the earthquake happened, and left much of the country in economic disaster.

Singapore leads the ranking, followed by Hong Kong, the United States, Switzerland, Australia and Sweden. Still, Chile leads Latin American in the list, followed by Brazil (38), Peru (41), Colombia (45), Mexico (47), Argentina (55), and Venezuela (58).

By Sebastian Leon – Santiago Times