The Global Sustainable Competitiveness Index 2019

Executive Summary
Table of
Contents
1.2 Sustainable vs. Conventional Competitiveness
Conventional Competitiveness: GDP measurements, the WEF
Index
The success of nations currently is mostly expressed in their economic output –
GDP, and GDP per capita, GDP growth. The GDP or GNI, however, are limited to
the current economic output, and do not evaluate underlying structures.
The best-know competitiveness ranking is the WEF’s Competitiveness Index.
However, the WEF index is flawed, both methodically and in terms of indicators
considered. It is therefore not really surprising that the Index results rise eyebrows.
We are all aware that the US is a big economy – but the 2 nd most competitive
economy? Please. Yes, the US has MS, Google and precision military hardware,
people don’t buy American cars because they are not competitive – and that’s
all. Here are some of the most striking differences between the WEF-Index and
the Global Sustainable Competitiveness Index:
Rank
Country GSCI WEF +/-
Sweden 1 8 +7
Finland 2 11 +9
Iceland 3 26 +23
Denmark 4 10 +6
Norway 6 17 +11
Switzerland 5 5 -
Estonia 7 31 +24
New Zealand 12 19 +7
Germany 15 7 -8
United Kingdom 17 9 -8
France 20 15 -5
Japan 25 6 -19
Rank
Country GSCI WEF +/-
South Korea 27 13 -14
Netherlands 29 4 -25
USA 34 2 -32
Spain 38 23 -15
China 37 28 -9
Singapore 41 1 -40
Australia 42 16 -26
Bolivia 48 107 +59
Brazil 49 71 +22
Argentina 69 83 +14
United Arab Emirates 80 25 -55
India 130 68 -62
We consider the GSCI to be a more balanced index and measurement of
competitiveness that delivers a deeper and more accurate picture of the true
competitiveness of a nation-economy. (For a detailed analysis of the similarities
and differences between the GSCI and the WEF index, please refer to the
research paper “Sustainable Vs WEF Competitiveness”).
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