Korea slides to 26th in IMD rankings

By Kim Tae-gyu

Korea’s competitiveness ranking dropped four places to 26th this year in a 60-country list compiled by the Switzerland-based International Institute for Management Development (IMD).

The disappointing result is attributable to the country’s ratings in government and corporate efficiency ― it fell from 20th to 26th in the former and from 34th to 39th in the latter over the past year.

Asia’s fourth-largest economy also declined in such criteria as exchange rate stability, electricity costs for industry, government budget surplus/deficit, bureaucracy, ease of doing business, cyber security, justice and corporate debt.

By contrast, it improved in foreign investment, growth in national output, mobile telephone costs, consumer price inflation, start-up days, energy intensity, ageing of society and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita.

In three subcategories of long-term unemployment rate, recycling rate of paper and research investment against GDP, Korea was found to be second to none.

By contrast, the country was stuck rock bottom in areas such as cyber security, tariff barriers, labor-management relations, board of directors’ role in monitoring companies and corporate audits and inspections.

Korea managed to creep up the table in the late 2000s and early 2010s as the country successfully overcame the global financial crisis, which started in 2008, and the economic slump caused by the debt crisis in the Euro zone.

It jumped four slots to the 27th in 2008 and further climbed to the 23rd the next year. During the following three years, it remained in 22nd place before plummeting to 26th this year.

The United States topped the list followed by Switzerland and Singapore.

Japan nudged past Korea by three spots to 21st. China and Taiwan slid two notches each to take 23rd and 13th places, respectively.