Sri Lanka up five notches in Global Competitiveness Report

Oct 02, 2015 (LBO) - Sri Lanka has moved up five ranks to 68 from 73 in a global index of the world's most competitive economies for the year 2015-16.





The Global Competitiveness Report 2015-2016 assesses the competitiveness of 140 world economies.



The report, which serves as a reference point for investors worldwide, comes in a year of economic disappointment in emerging markets, whose aggregate growth rate fell from three times that of advanced economies in 2013 to just double in 2015.

Emerging and developing Asia, the report says now accounts for some 30 percent of global gross domestic product, with China alone accounting for 16 percent. In contrast, no member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) features in the top 50.

India leads the way at 55, followed by Sri Lanka 68, Nepal 100 (up two), Bhutan 105 (down two), Bangladesh 107 (up two) and Pakistan 126(up three).

From China to Brazil, the blistering economic progress of past years has eased as global growth has cooled to its slowest pace since the depths of the global recession in 2009.



Switzerland came in at first for the seventh time running, with Singapore second, the report found.

Southern Europe, India and Germany all charted significant progress in the rankings.