Brexit knocks UK down to 8th place in global competitiveness index

The UK has dropped two places in the World Economic Forum global competitiveness index and could risk a further decline due to Brexit.

The report showed how the UK was particularly strong in areas such as institutions, infrastructure, health, skills, and its financial system. Nevertheless these are areas that are threatened by Brexit after March 2019.

This effect could be aggravated in a no-deal scenario which seems a very likely option since negotiations with the European Union are at an impasse.

“Brexit … will by definition weaken the United Kingdom’s markets component as integration with the EU is rolled back,” the report said.

It also showed that the UK had slipped in the ranking due to a deterioration in domestic labour mobility.

The report showed that the UK had been overtaken by Hong Kong and Japan this year and found that Europe in general was now less competitive than East Asia and some Pacific regions.

In particular the UK seems less prepared than some of its rivals regarding adoption of new IT equipment and technology evolution, poor provision of mobile and fibre broadband and poor digital skills of the population.

The US topped the table for the first time in a decade a score of 85.6, ahead of Singapore and Germany. The average score for the world is 60, 40 points away from the frontier.