This year’s World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report ranks Nepal in 108th position (out of 141 ranked world economies). Though improved by one position as compared to the 2018 analysis, Nepal is still the second least competitive economy in South Asia. This year as well, Nepal’s performance across 12 Competitiveness Index Pillars is below average as the economy performed poorly in 7 Pillars and struggled to do better in 1 Pillar. The former Pillars include Institutions, ICT Adoption, Skills, Product Market, Labour Market, Market Size, and Innovation Capability and the latter Pillar include Business Dynamism. This year, for Nepal, country’s performance has improved for only 4 Pillars and they include Infrastructure, Macroeconomic Stability, Health, and Financial System.
Between 2010/11 and 2019, in the race for becoming the most competitive economy in South Asia, Nepal and Pakistan have been the major winners while India and Sri Lanka the biggest losers. Bangladesh has been a minor winner as the country’s competitiveness improved by only 2 positions during this period.
