GETTING poor scores on health and infrastructure, the Philippines fell eight points in the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Competitiveness Report 2019, pushing the country in the lower quartile of the rankings of Southeast Asian economies.
The Philippines obtained a score of 61.9 in the 2019 edition of the report, down from the 62.1 it received in the 2018 cycle. This put the country in the 64th spot in the survey measuring the competitiveness of 141 economies, including all Southeast Asian nations except Myanmar.
In the region, the Philippines slipped to sixth—from fifth last year—behind Singapore at first, Malaysia at 27th, Thailand at 40th, Indonesia at 50th and Brunei Darussalam at 56th, and just ahead of Vietnam at 67th, Cambodia at 106th and Lao PDR at 113th.
The Philippines saw the biggest drop in both its score and rank in the pillar of information and communications technology adoption. Its rating in this pillar declined to 49.7, from 54.8, and its rank to 88th, from 67th, on below average scores in fixed broadband Internet subscriptions and mobile cellular telephone subscriptions.
The country’s rank in the pillar of macroeconomic stability slumped to 55th, from 43rd, on the inflation rate that surged last year and is just easing this year.
The Philippines suffered its lowest rank in the pillar of health at 102nd. The report attributed this to the decrease in the country’s life expectancy to 65.6 years, from 67.6 years.
On the upside, Manila got its highest rankings in the pillars of market size at 31st, labor market at 39th, financial system at 43rd, business dynamism at 44th and product market at 52nd.
The Philippines also improved its score by 0.4 to 64.9 in the pillar of labor market, but its global rank declined to 39th, from 36th; and in the region, to fourth, from third, as the country was overtaken by Brunei Darussalam. The country’s labor market maintained high ratings in internal labor mobility and cooperation between labor and management, but got flagged for redundancy costs.
Globally, Singapore topped all 141 economies included in the annual competitiveness report to lead the United States, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Japan, Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Denmark, in that order.
The WEF survey makes use of the global competitiveness index, which assesses the drivers of productivity among economies. The Makati Business Club is the WEF’s partner institute in the Philippines administering the executive opinion survey that is used in the report.