The Netherlands reclaims fourth place in competitiveness ranking

After dropping to sixth place last year, the Netherlands retakes fourth place in the 2019 Global Competitiveness ranking compiled by the World Economic Forum. The world’s most competitive economy this year is Singapore, overtaking the United States, which comes in second. Hong Kong jumps up four spots to claim third place. Belgium drops one rank, to 22^nd place.

With a score unchanged from last year, the Netherlands owes its rank progression to the declining performance of both Germany and Switzerland. Performance is strong across the board, but there are some soft spots, such as ICT adoption, life expectancy and the financial system. Like the Netherlands, Belgium scores very high on macroeconomic stability but, unlike the Netherlands, doesn’t manage to secure a top ten ranking on any of the other thirteen criteria.