Swiss ranking

Austria slumps in competitiveness

A worker in a steel factory

(Bild: APA/Hans Klaus Techt)

Austria's international competitiveness has declined. This is the result of a ranking by the Lausanne business school IMD, in which Austria is ranked 24th out of 67 countries. Five years ago, the country was still in 16th place.

Criteria include health and the environment, international trade, productivity, social stability, science and education. Denmark, Ireland and the Netherlands achieved top places in the EU in this comparison, while outside the EU Singapore was in first place and Switzerland (second place) came top. Bringing up the rear in Europe are Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia.

This time, Austria scored well in areas such as health and the environment as well as international trade. The main negative outliers are the tax points and "attitudes and values". The IMD's partner organization in this country is the Federation of Austrian Industries (ID).

This is what competitiveness looks like according to this ranking.

Productivity has barely increased
Looking at Europe as a whole, it is clear that the region is in second place behind East Asia. Productivity per person employed has barely increased since the turn of the millennium. This is in contrast to China, the Middle East and African countries. However, the economic gains there have not led to higher wages, better infrastructure or better healthcare.

According to the IMD, wealthy countries have competition from emerging economies. Successful countries are those that adapt to the digital revolution and the transition to a circular economy with a lower carbon footprint while generating prosperity for their population.

However, according to a recent survey, the majority of managers from 67 countries (55%) see artificial intelligence as the biggest risk for their company - closely followed by global economic stagnation and geopolitical conflicts.