Iran has jumped seven places for economic competitiveness, according to the 2017-18 edition of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF’s) Global Competitiveness Report, meaning it now ranks 69th of the 137 surveyed countries.
The result means the Islamic Republic is gaining on its regional arch rival Saudi Arabia, which compared to the 2016-17 report edition slipped back one place to 30th. The United Arab Emirates also fell one place, placing 17th, while Qatar fell seven places to 25th.
The rankings in the edition are based on assessments of country performances during 2016.
Iran, a country of 80m people with a $376.8bn economy, placed as far back as 83rd in the 2014-15 WEF report edition.
The latest report also ranked Iran 44th for its macro-economic environment, 128th for financial market development and 50th for health and primary education.
It lagged in institutions (85th), infrastructure (57th), and labour market efficiency (130th).
According to the WEF, the six most problematic factors for doing business were access to financing, inefficient government bureaucracy, policy instability, inadequate supply of infrastructure, inflation and corruption (in that order, with the worst first).
The WEF Global Competitiveness Report “measures national competitiveness—defined as the set of institutions, policies and factors that determine the level of productivity”.
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