South Africa's Competitiveness Stable

[ScienceRocks]

South Africa's Competitiveness Stable

South Africa dropped one place in the World Economic Forum's (WEF's) latest Global Competitiveness Index, ranking 53rd out of 148 countries surveyed while placing second in Africa, second among the BRICS economies, and third overall for financial market development.

Published on Wednesday, the annual Global Competitiveness Report was first released in 1979 and has since become a highly regarded measure of relative competitiveness among most of the world's nations.

Mauritius climbed nine places to 45th to rank as Africa's competitiveness leader for the first time, followed by South Africa (53rd, down by 1), Rwanda (66th, up by 3), Botswana (74th, up by 5), Morocco (77th, down by 7), Seychelles (80th, down by 4), Tunisia (83rd, first survey), Namibia (90th, up by 2), Zambia (93rd, up by 9), Kenya (96th, up by 10), and Algeria (100th, up by 10).

China, its ranking steady at 29th, continues to lead the BRICS group of influential emerging market economies, followed by South Africa at 53rd, Brazil (56th, down by 8) India (60th, down by 1) and Russia (64th, up by 3).

However, South Africa's most serious challenge, the report finds - here echoing the country's National Development Plan (NDP) - lies in the "very poor" quality its educational system (146th).

"Raising educational standards and making the labour market more efficient will thus be critical in view of the country's high unemployment rate of over 20 percent, with the rate of youth unemployment estimated at close to 50 percent," the report states

allAfrica.com: South Africa's Competitiveness Stable (Page 1 of 3)