A Holistic Approach

The Philippines climbed a spot in the 2025 World Competitiveness Yearbook, taking 51st place out of 69 economies.

- MARY ANN LL. REYES

The country ranked 51st based on performance across four key pillars, namely economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency and infrastructure in the report prepared by IMD World Competitiveness Center of the Switzerland-based IMD-International Institute for Management Development.

Switzerland, Singapore and Hong Kong were named the world's most competitive economies in the 2025 IMD World Competitiveness Ranking while Canada, Germany and Luxembourg were the most improved.

The US ranked 13th, China at 16th, Malaysia at 23rd, Thailand at 30th, Japan at 35th spot and Indonesia at 40th.

In terms of the domestic economy, the Philippines was 22nd, climbing five spots; in international trade 55th, improving by three places; in terms of prices, 39th moving up by nine spots and in terms of employment, seventh, rising three places.

In terms of international investments, the country ranked 45th, down by one spot.

According to the AIM-RSN Policy Center for Competitiveness, which is IMD's partner in the Philippines, among the challenges facing the country are in terms of rekindling the country's economic dynamism and growth trajectory, addressing inflation expectations, promoting investments in inclusive technology to boost labor productivity and empower entrepreneurship, improving education and health care to promote inclusive growth and reduce vulnerabilities and adapting to shifting global economic and geo-political dynamics.

In the same report, the Philippines's gross domestic product of $461.5 billion was 31st on the list but its real GDP growth of 5.6 percent was third.

In terms of consumer price inflation at 3.2 percent, it was 46th; in terms of unemployment rate at 3.8 percent, 23rd place; in terms of labor force of 50.7 million it placed ninth; its current account balance of negative 3.8 percent at 60th spot; stocks inward of $119 billion at 44th and flows inward at 1.4 percent of GDP at 39th place.