Panama Ranks Among the World's Top 50 Competitive Economies

2011-09-08

According to The Global Competitiveness Report just released by the World Economic Forum, Panama jumped to 49th, ranking among the world’s top 50 competitive economies for the first time. Panama advanced 4 places over the previous year, and is in the 3rd place of the Central and South America and the Caribbean region, only trailing Chile (31st place) and Barbados (42nd place). Panama is the only country in the Central American region that rose in ranking. Costa Rica fell from the 56th ranking to the 61st, while Guatemala fell from the 78th to the 84th. The main contributing factors to the improved ranking include the port quality, transportation infrastructure construction, financial system efficiency, technology absorption and promotion, and direct foreign investment attraction. Items that require improvement mainly include the education quality and system, judicial independence, and the labor market.