Sweden 'fourth most competitive country'
Published: 18 May 11 10:59 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/33842/20110518/
Sweden has fared well in a new ranking of the world's most competitive countries, climbing two spots into fourth place in a new ranking from the Swiss business school IMD.
- Sweden projects budget surplus build-up (13 Apr 11)
- Sweden boosts economic growth forecast (4 Mar 11)
- Sweden 'strong like Pippi Longstocking': OECD (20 Jan 11)
Sweden's favourable ranking and improvement on 2010 is due to strong economic growth, allowing it to overtake Switzerland and Australia in the 2011 list.
The IMD rankings include 59 countries and are based on statistics and assessments from business leaders.
“The world of competitiveness becomes more national. ‘World Competitiveness 2.0’ is thus characterised by a greater self-reliance of countries. It increasingly emphasises re-industrialisation, exports, and a more critical look at delocalisation,” wrote IMD's Stéphane Garelli.
Garelli explained that the trend has been triggered by the climb in commodity and transport prices as well as higher labour costs in emerging economies.
"National champions are favoured everywhere and borders re-surface - again!" he wrote.
IMD also released the results of its first "Government efficiency gap" survey.
According to the findings the US was "rescued" by its business efficiency while Sweden, along with Australia and Singapore, displayed a greater balance.
“Government spending has reached new highs since the recession: on average 47 percent of the GDPs in the most advanced economies. 12 European countries are already above the 50 percent threshold. The 23 biggest spenders are all European governments. How long can it last?" professor Garelli queried.
Garelli argued that in a new world of "state capitalism", government efficiency will assume increasing importance as a determinant of competitiveness.
Peter Vinthagen Simpson
news@thelocal.se
+46 8 656 6513
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Which mentally sane person would invest in Sweden where the taxes eat much more than half of your profit?
Sweden economically survives only because it's a relatively large country with many natural resourced distributed on around 9 millions inhabitants.
Try to put 50 millions of persons in Sweden and we will see how many it would competitive.
huh...
By the way being top of on the list is not really the best thing one country can achieve. HDI and people's overall education and health is a better representative of successful system!
This article is nonsense.
A suggestion for the local. If you are going to write an article try sticking to facts instead of repeating gibberish.
"Wow, I didn't know we were an oligarchy. Learn something new every day"
No surprise, James. Your frequent posts reveal that you don't know much about anything--not about Sweden, and especially not about other countries.
Such cluelessness indicates you probably went to school in Sweden.
Switzerland is exactly opposite of Sweden. Corruption and multiculturalism except for isolated parts where culture still managed to survive somehow...
Kg bannas in Uk 10kr
in Sweden 20kr
Tropicana juice 3 x 1 ltr for £3 in UK
1ltr for 28kr in Sweden
Prices from 10 days ago ...
I don't think this is about starting small businesses, about income taxes or food prices. It's about how well the governments are doing and competitive the companies in the various countries are. Our IKEA, H&M etc are doing pretty ok, and we - contrary to popular belief - were not hit very hard by the economy crisis. We have lots of R&D.
I'm not saying we're doing that good, but everyone else - except those three - might very well be doing worse.