The-Global-Sustainable-Competitiveness-Index-2015

Summary
Sustainable
Competitive
Natural
Capital
Social
Capital
Intellectual
Capital
Resource
Management
Governance Spotlight Data
Social
Capaital
8 Spotlight: After the financial crisis
The financial crises 2007/2008 translated into a global
economic crises and caught many countries unprepared.
Different countries have used different measurements to
deal with the fall-out, declining economy, and increasing
debt. We have therefore chosen countries that have
adopted different answers to those challenges. The
research of the Sustainable Competitiveness Index is used
to investigate whether sustainable competitiveness
research can provide and insight as to why some countries
have or are recovering better than others since the crisis.
Benchmarking countries
Sustainable Competitiveness
scores of the benchmark group
Three countries (UK, Iceland, and Korea) have been chosen due to their very
different approach after the crisis: saving at any cost to reduce deficits (UK),
state-led investment program (Korea), and letting the banks into bankruptcy
(Iceland), with the US, Germany, Japan, China and Greece serving as
references.
The UK was set on a strict austerity course (i.e. supporting the
financial market and cutting tax for the well-off in the hope
that this would lead to increasing investments and jobs
while cutting all other cost in the hope to reduce budget
deficits). Greece was forced on an ultra-austerity course by
its European debtor countries - who want to recoup the
money they gave Greece to bail out high-risk Greek
investments of non-Greek European banks. South Korea
and China both put forward significant investment
packages in the face of economic crisis; while Iceland’s
population refused to bail out the banks. The US, Germany
and Japan used a set of policies trying to reignite their economies. All of the
selected countries score above the average in the Competitiveness Index, but
some countries – particular the US and the UK, are ranked considerably lower
than in other competitiveness comparisons.
Historic development of GNI per
capita of the benchmark group
Economic output development
All of these countries have a considerable per-capita
economic output and have more or less developed in
parallel over the past 50 years. Of particular interest is
Iceland’s spike after 2002 when the GNI output per capita
doubled within a few year following the country’s
metamorphosis into a single big investment bank and the
steep decline when the bubble of trash-paper trading burst
in 2007/2008. China is still only waking up to its ancient
grandeur, and is likely to continue its growth into the future
with improving infrastructure and education. However, in this particular context
recent developments since the financial crisis are of more interest than the longterm
developments.
GNI development since the
financial crisis (2008) – China
more than doubled, the more
developed countries only grew
modestly or lost
the sustainable competitiveness index 2015
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