The Philippines rose one place in the 2017 World Competitiveness Yearbook rankings, after sliding last year, on improved economic performance.
Switzerland-based International Institute of Management Development said the Philippines climbed to 41st among 63 economies this year from 42nd in 2016 and matching its ranking in the 2015 edition of the yearbook.
Among Asia-Pacific economies, the Philippines also moved up from 12th in 2016 to 11th this year.
The economies were evaluated across 346 criteria in four broad categories: economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency, and infrastructure. WCY uses both macroeconomic data and perceptions-based indicators in ranking the competitiveness of countries.
The Philippines’ economic performance ranking soared 12 places to 26th in 2017 from 38th in 2016. The improvement was largely driven by a jump from 31st to 12th in the domestic economy sub-factor, led by robust GDP growth, as well as improvement in the employment sub-factor from 19th to 4th.
The Philippines ranked third in both real GDP growth and resilience of economy, but placed near the bottom of the rankings in GDP per capita.
However, the Philippines dropped one place in terms of government efficiency, from 36th in 2016 to 37th in 2017.
While the country rose nine places in the public finance sub-factor, from 34th to 25th, this could not make up for the drop in the sub-factors for tax policy (15th to 18th) and societal framework (43rd to 51st).
The Philippines also performed well in the criteria for central bank policy at second, but continued to lag behind in terms of start-up procedures and other criteria covering ease of doing business.
The rankings for business efficiency saw the Philippines slip, from 24th in 2016 to 28th this year. Drops were registered in the sub-factors for productivity and efficiency, from 36th to to 52nd; labor market, from 4th to 5th; management practices, from 24th to 28th; and attitudes and values, from 12th to 18th. The country rose from 35th to 33rd in finance.
The Philippines placed highly in skilled labor, flexibility and adaptability, and national culture. On the other hand, the country placed 62nd in both overall productivity and labor productivity.
The country continued to perform poorly in infrastructure despite going up one place in 2017, from 55th to 54th. Overall, most of the improvements in ranking were driven by data-based indicators, while decreases were mostly accounted for by perceptions-based factors.
Hong Kong topped the 2017 competitiveness rankings, with Switzerland, Singapore, the United States, and the Netherlands completing the top five.
Meanwhile, the bottom of the ranking featured several economies undergoing political or economic upheavals, including Venezuela, Brazil and Ukraine.