U.S. Returns to N.1 of WEF's Global Competitiveness Rankings. Venezuela 127th.

The World Economic Forum has released today their annual study 2018-2019 on competitiveness in the global economy.

They looked at the competitiveness landscape of 140 economies through 98 indicators organised into 12 pillars. For each indicator, using a scale from 0 to 100, it indicates how close an economy is to the ideal state or "frontier" of competitiveness.

WEF's global economy competitiveness report: Roberto Crotti

https://youtu.be/PJfCj9oALFo

The United States U.S. achieved the best overall performance with a score of 85.6, ahead of Singapore and Germany. The average score for the world is 60. Singapore, Germany, Switzerland, and Japan (+3) rounded out the top five.

The top 20 countries in the world as ranked by global competitiveness, according to WEF 2018-2019:

1. United States 85.6
2. Singapore 83.5
3. Germany 82.8
4. Switzerland 82.6
5. Japan 82.5
6. Netherlands 82.4
7. Hong Kong 82.3
8. United Kingdom 82.0
9. Sweden 81.7
10. Denmark 80.6
11. Finland 80.3
12. Canada 79.9
13. Taiwan 79.3
14. Australia 78.9
15. South Korea 78.8
16. Norway 78.2
17. France 78.0
18. New Zealand 77.5
19. Luxembourg 76.6
20. Israel 76.6

In Latin America, Chile’s score (70.3, 33rd) is almost twice that of Haití (36.5, 138th) and Venezuela (127th).

Transparency is the weakest sub-pillar overall. Scores are assessed using Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI), for which the World Economic Forum’s Executive Opinion Survey is a source. On the CPI’s scale, ranging from 0 (“highly corrupt”) to 100 (“very clean”), two-thirds of the 140 GCI countries score lower than 50 and the median is just 43. When advanced economies are excluded, the median drops to 36. The worst-performing region is Eurasia but Latin America and the Caribbean is home to the world’s most corrupt country, Venezuela, Maduro’s Criminal Regime, which has a score of 18.

Meanwhile, the Government of Costa Rica announced yesterday on Tuesday, October 16, that it supports an initiative of six American countries that asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate alleged crimes against humanity in Venezuela.

The president of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado, said in a statement that "in pursuit of its historic fight against impunity, Costa Rica supports the efforts" before the ICC initiated weeks ago by Argentina, Peru, Canada, Paraguay, Chile and Colombia.