The IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook

The World Competitiveness Center of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) publishes since 1989 the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook, an annual report benchmarking the economic performance of 63 countries, in terms of capacity of States to create and maintain an environment which sustains the competitiveness of their enterprises, so to achieve long-term growth, generate jobs and increase welfare.

Apart from evaluating the effectiveness of government policies in creating an environment conducive for their companies to compete domestically or internationally, the report also examines the economic performance in terms of development of the domestic market, international trade, international investments, employment trends and prices, showing for each country the key attractive indicators (ex. in terms of policy stability and predictability, availability of a skilled workforce, educational levels, reliability of infrastructure, etc.).

Countries’ performances are measured by using more than 340 criteria which include statistical data (collected from both international and national sources) and surveys to collect feedback from private operators.

The only African country included in the IMF analysis is South Africa, which is ranked 53 out of 63 economies in the IMD World Competitiveness ranking 2019. Singapore, Hong Kong and USA are rated as the most performing economies. The full IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook can be purchased online on the IMF website.