2013 Global Competitiveness Ranking: Austria retains position

Austria has succeeded in holding on to 16th place in the World Economic Forum’s latest Global Competitiveness Report and is ranked fourth among the eurozone countries.

The Global Competitiveness Report (GCP) 2013-2014, recently published by the World Economic Forum (WEF), ranks Austria 16th out of 148 countries, thereby retaining its position from last year. This puts Austria ahead of other industrialised Western countries such as Belgium (17), Australia (21) and France (23). For the fifth time in a row, Switzerland retains its title as the country with the best competitiveness landscape, followed by Singapore (2), Finland (3), Germany (4) and the USA (5).
Austria is particularly well-ranked for business sophistication (8th place), innovation (15th place) and infrastructure (16th place). Respectable results were also achieved in the categories “Higher education and training” (13th place) and on-the-job training (5th place). For Austria to enhance its competitiveness, the WEF recommends greater flexibility in the labour market (Austria is currently 88th) and further improvements to the “already excellent educational system”.
The Global Competitiveness Report compares 148 countries using a weighted index of 114 indicators in 12 different categories. The ranking incorporates numerous statistics-based indicators along with a survey of 15,000 managers and representatives of international organisations.