South Korea's National Competitiveness Rises by Six Places, but Economic Performance Declines

Ranked 21st Overall Among 70 Countries by IMD

Employment Falls from 5th to 7th, Prices from 30th to 40th... Economic Performance Drops Three Places

This year, South Korea's national competitiveness ranking has risen by six places compared to last year. After dropping seven spots last year due to external and internal challenges such as the U.S.-led tariff war and political instability stemming from martial law and impeachment proceedings, South Korea has managed to rebound.

On June 19, the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) of Switzerland announced its national competitiveness rankings, in which South Korea ranked 21st out of 70 evaluated countries. This is the second-highest ranking since South Korea was first included in the assessment in 1997. The IMD World Competitiveness Ranking evaluates countries across four categories: business efficiency, infrastructure, government efficiency, and economic performance.

For South Korea, rankings improved compared to the previous year in business efficiency (from 44th to 34th), which consists of subcategories such as productivity and efficiency, labor market, finance, management practices, and attitudes and values, as well as in infrastructure (from 21st to 15th).

However, among the four categories, economic performance dropped three places. While international trade (from 34th to 33rd) and international investment (from 21st to 20th) saw slight improvements, the rankings for domestic economy (from 8th to 10th), employment (from 5th to 7th), and prices (from 30th to 40th) declined.

The economic performance category was evaluated based on inter-country comparisons using statistical indicators from last year. Kang Giryong, Deputy Minister of Strategy and Finance, explained, "Despite a sharp rebound in the second half of last year (1.8%), the low level in the first half (0.4%) led to a drop in the rankings."

The government efficiency category maintained its previous ranking, but remains relatively weak compared to other areas. Among its five subcategories, tax policy (from 30th to 22nd), institutional framework (from 24th to 21st), and societal framework (from 36th to 30th) improved in ranking, but declines in public finance (from 21st to 22nd) and business legislation (from 50th to 53rd) offset these gains.

Among the "3050 Club" countries—those with a per capita gross national income of over 30,000 dollars and a population exceeding 50 million—South Korea ranked second after the United States, followed by Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, France, and Italy.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.