Business competitiveness in Australia has declined and the country has scored poorly on business resilience, entrepreneurship and management credibility.
That’s according to IMD’s Global Competitiveness Yearbook 2021, which on Thursday placed Australia 22nd out of 64 countries, down four places from 2020.
The study ranked Australia as one of the worst countries in terms of corporate resilience, management credibility, customer satisfaction and entrepreneurship.
The country has also performed poorly in developing its exports, given Australia’s heavy dependence on mineral resources.
Likewise, it scored below 40 for personal and business tax rates, and exports of ICT services and energy infrastructure.
CEDA’s chief economist, Jarrod Ball, said Australia cannot count on its laurels, despite its relative success in suppressing COVID-19 during the pandemic.
Ball said companies will have to do a lot of the heavy lifting in the post-pandemic era, and governments will need to take stronger action on climate change to boost green innovation.
The government will also need to speed up vaccine deployment and build permanent quarantine facilities to speed up the reopening of international borders.
“We will have to be more dynamic, innovative and open up new markets for new goods and services in the future to deliver a new generation of strong economic growth, more jobs and incomes,” Paul said in a statement.
But he said Australia’s skilled workforce, policy stability and quality healthcare are factors that favor future prosperity.
Switzerland ranked first in the survey with Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and Singapore in the top five.
It comes after Australia’s unemployment rate fell to 5.1% on Thursday, down from 5.5% and back to pre-pandemic levels.
“The Australian economy is picking up, getting bigger, getting stronger and leading the world,” Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told reporters in Canberra.
But the Reserve Bank of Australia wants inflation to stay within its 2-3 per cent target before considering raising cash rates from a record low of 0.1 per cent.
