Dutch competitiveness takes a hit in IMD world ranking

The Dutch economy took a tumble in this year’s World Competitiveness Ranking published by business school IMD. Dropping to the ninth spot, the Netherlands forfeited a top-5 ranking with worsening scores across the board: both business and government efficiency took a hit and infrastructure scores dropped as well. Only economic performance saw a slight improvement. This year’s overall result is the Netherlands’ worst since 2015, when a fifteenth ranking was obtained.

Critical challenges facing the Netherlands include construction of infrastructure and housing, deregulation, improvement of valorization of academic research, consensus on measures to meet the Paris Agreement climate goals and creating a welcoming international business climate, says employers’ federation VNO-NCW, which collects the data for IMD.

Gaining two places, Singapore may call itself this year’s most competitive economy. Switzerland and Denmark complete the top three.