Pakistan’s competitiveness among global economies has slightly improved to 129 out of 144 in rankings published yearly by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
According to the ‘Global Competitiveness Report’ 2014-15 released by the WEF on Wednesday, the country remains essentially stable since last year after two consecutive years of steep decline. However, the country obtains low marks in the most critical and basic areas of competitiveness.
The report says that Pakistan’s public institutions are constrained by red tape, widespread corruption, culture of patronage, and lack of property rights protection.
Describing Pakistan’s security situation as “alarming”, the report ranks it third least safe of all countries covered, behind only Yemen and Libya.
On a slightly positive note, the GCI ranks Pakistan 72nd in the financial development pillar and 81st on the business sophistication pillar, which means the country performed comparatively better in the more advanced areas.
The most problematic areas in doing business in Pakistan stipulated in the report include corruption as the leading factor, along with, policy instability, access to financing, inefficient government bureaucracy, inflation, inadequate supply of infrastructure, government instability/coups, crime and theft, inadequately educated workforce, tax rates, tax regulations, poor public health and insufficient capacity to innovate.
The country’s macroeconomic situation did improve slightly on the back of lower inflation rate and a smaller budget deficit, but it is still dismal at 137th.
