Egypt stepped up one spot to rank 115th among 138 nations in the Global Competitive Index (GCI) 2016/17, released on Wednesday by the World Economic Forum.
The Arab nation remains stable within the index, scoring 3.67 out of 7 in 2016/17 up from 3.66 in the previous year, according to the GCI report.
The index that highlighted the key economic weaknesses of a country in the midst of reform, ranks nations according to 12 “pillars,” including infrastructure, institutions, education, labour market, technological readiness and business sophistication, to determine overall economic competitiveness.
The 12 pillars are shaping the GCI’s three sub indexes of the basic requirements, which saw Egypt in 117th place out of total 138 countries, efficiency enhancers (100th) and innovation and sophistication factors (111th.)
“Egypt needs to step up its reform efforts and address the major rigidities that plague its goods, labor, and financial markets,” the report said.
The most populous Arab country was ranked 135th in terms of labour efficiency.
According to the report, the country’s ranks regarding the quality of primary and higher education recorded 134th and 135th respectively, “which is below the performance of peer economies.”
The overall security situation ranked 133rd, “which remains fragile and imposes significant cost for business.”
Political instability was cited by 21 percent of responders as the most prominent obstacle to doing business, followed by government instability (12.5 percent).
Representing the Middle East, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Israel and Saudi Arabia were among the CGI top 30 countries, while Switzerland remained in the first place of the global index, followed by Singapore, the United States and the Netherlands.
