Denmark inches up global competitiveness ranking

Danes up to sixth on the World Competitive Yearbook 2018

Denmark is ranked as the sixth most competitive country in the world, according to the 2018 World Competitiveness Yearbook, which is annually published by the Swiss business school IMD.

The Danes improved from seventh place in the ranking last year to sixth in the latest edition (here in English), which was topped by the US.

The national confederation for industry, Dansk Industri (DI), praised the results.

“It is crucial that Denmark is among the most competitive countries in the world if we want to continue to be among the wealthiest countries in the world,” said DI’s deputy head, Kent Damsgaard.

“We are a small, open economy, and 775,000 Danish jobs depend on our exports. It is therefore excellent news that we have moved up one spot.”

READ MORE: Denmark has best work-life balance for expats in the world

Work to do
But Damsgaard also warned there was plenty of room for improvement – particularly within the realm of export.

Last year’s leader Hong Kong slipped to second, followed by Singapore, the Netherlands and Switzerland. The Danes, UAE, Norway, Sweden and Canada completed the top 10.

Other notables included China Mainland (13), Germany (15), Finland (16), Australia (19), the UK (20), Iceland (24), Japan (25), South Korea (27), France (28), India (44), Russia (45), South Africa (53) and Brazil (60).

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