Greece’s further slide in competitiveness
Greece ranks last among the 137 countries surveyed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in terms of the attractiveness of its tax system to investors, leading to the country dropping one more spot in the organization’s global competitiveness chart for this year. This despite the strengthening of the fiscal figures, the marginal improvement in access to bank financing and the political stability of the last couple of years.
The 2017-18 report places Greece in 87th position among 137 countries, down from 86th among 138 countries last year. Across 12 categories the survey examines, Greece has posted a decline in eight, including the operation of institutions: In this category, Greece dropped from 81st to 87th place due to its low marks in the efficiency of managing public resources, which placed it 132nd.
Even worse, Greece ranks 133rd among 137 countries in the efficiency of its legal framework. However, the worst aspect of the country’s competitiveness is its taxation: Greece is not only 137th as regards the criterion of attracting investment through its tax system, it is also 136th in terms of taxation operating as an incentive for employment. All this has seen this country drop to 93rd (from 89th last year) in the category of efficiency in the products market.
The survey has also identified a deterioration in other domains where Greece had performed relatively better in previous years, such as primary education, technological readiness and innovation. WEF founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab noted that innovation plays an crucial part in a country’s competitiveness.
Within the space of one year, Greece has fallen from 42nd to 50th spot in technological readiness and from 72nd to 75th place in innovation. This is mainly due to a couple of criteria that have placed Greece near the bottom of the table: The country ranks 129th in the cooperation of universities with enterprises in research and development, and 131st in state supply of advanced technology products.
