BUSINESS confidence is rising in Australia despite core economic indicators not improving, an international survey on global competitiveness has found.
Results from the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook were released today, showing we regained one place this year rising from 18 to 17, moving up the rankings for the first time after five years of decline.
Our economic performance lifted thanks to a rise in international investment, R&D and employment but we scored lower GDP growth and low inflation relative to other countries.
We jumped from 27 to 12 on economic resilience which, according to Centre for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) chief executive Professor Steven Martin, indicated that the business community was more confident in Australia’s ability to adapt to the changing economic environment following the end of the mining construction boom.
In the technological infrastructure category we moved from 33 to 26, Professor Martin this seemed to be due to the increasing number of broadband subscribers.
“Improving internet bandwidth speed still has a long way to go, with Australia dropping in the rankings from 26 to 39 which means despite the roll-out of the NBN, other countries are getting better quicker,” Professor Martin said.
“Even more alarmingly, Australia’s information technology skills have dropped from a ranking of 27 last year to 36 this year.”
The rankings are part of the Switzerland based IMD’s 2016 World Competitiveness Yearbook, which compares and ranks 61 countries based on more than 340 business competitiveness criteria.
Overall China Hong Kong ranked first and Switzerland second, displacing the US which ranked third this year, after holding the number one ranking for the previous three years.