Sweden Tops Global Sustainable Competitiveness Index, US #34, China 37

ZURICH - Jan. 1, 2020 - PRLog -- GDP and other economic measurements do not reflect competitiveness and future potential. The Global Sustainable Competitiveness Index is of 116 quantitative performance indicators across 5 areas that shape national competitiveness:

Natural Capital,
Resource Intensity,
Intellectual Capital,
Social Cohesion,
Governance.

All data is derived from renowned sources (World Bank, UN databases, IEA, OECD). All data sets are scored for the latest available data as well as the development of trends (positive/negative) over the last 10 years to reflect both current standing and the future potential.

Key Index Results 2019:

The the 2019 Index is dominated by Scandinavia.The only non-European contenders in the top 20 are New Zealand (12), and Canada (19), followed by Japan (25) and South Korea (27). The US is scoring particularly low in social issues, and resource intensity – indicating not only development potential, but also cost reduction opportunities. Brazil is ranked 49, Russia 51, and India 130.

China is amongst the leading Nations (together with other Asian nations) when it comes to Intellectual capital and investments; however, the combination of limited natural resources, depletion, low resource efficiency and growing inequality could possibly jeopardise the future development of the country in the absence of a rigorous strategy to reverse the negative environmental impacts.

Some of the nominally poorest countries, on the other hand (e.g. Peru, Bolivia, Ethiopia, Laos) are ranked considerably higher than their current GDP would indicate.

Analysis & breakdowns:

Natural Capital: countries with high abundance of water, regardless of location and climatic zones, in general possess higher levels of natural capital, underlying the over-arching importance of the availability of clean and sufficient fresh-water resources

Resource Intensity: lesser developed economies tend to rank higher on resource intensity. However, modern economies trimmed on efficiency paired with high percentage of renewable energy usage are lower in intensity when measured per economic output: high wealth levels and low resource intensity are not mutually exclusive outcomes.

·         Intellectual Capital: Asian nations (South Korea, Japan, Singapore, and China) lead the Intellectual Capital ranking. However, achieving sustained prosperity in these countries might be compromised by Natural Capital constraints and current high resource intensity/low resource efficiency

Social Cohesion: the Social Cohesion ranking is headed by Scandinavian and Northern European countries, indicating that Social Cohesion is the result of economic growth combined with social consensus
Governance: the GSCI evaluates governance through measurable quantitative outcomes, not qualitative assessment of structures or policies. It is dominated many by European countries.

A detailed Report as well as individual country scores for 180 nations can be downloaded (http://solability.com/the-global-sustainable-competitiven...) here.