Taiwan climbs to 6th in 2025 IMD World Competitiveness Rankings

Taipei, June 17 (CNA) Taiwan has risen two spots to sixth place in the 2025 IMD World Competitiveness Rankings, outperforming 63 of the 69 surveyed economies.

Taiwan also retained its position as the world's most competitive economy among economies with populations over 20 million for the fifth consecutive year, according to the annual report released Tuesday by the Switzerland-based International Institute for Management Development (IMD).

The index is based on performance in four factors -- economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency and infrastructure -- each of which have five sub-factors based on different criteria.

Taiwan's overall improvement in the rankings were attributed to a significant jump in the economic performance category, in which it advanced 16 places to 10th, according to the report.

It remained strong in the other three categories, moving up two spots in the rankings to fourth in business efficiency, and remaining unchanged at eighth in government efficiency and 10th in infrastructure.

Taiwan's economic performance jump was largely the result of improvement in the "domestic economy" sub-factor, in which it surged from 13th to 4th.

That in turn was driven by indicators such as real GDP growth per capita, which rose 28 positions to 4th globally, reaching 4.68 percent.

In the international trade sub-factor, Taiwan climbed from 48th to 30th, bolstered by growth in both goods exports (ranked 8th, up 9.72 percent) and services exports (28th, up 8.95 percent).

The report also cited challenges Taiwan will face in 2025, which it said were provided by Taiwan's National Development Council (NDC).

Among them were the need to "deepen international cooperation to enhance strategic positioning in global value chain," "diversify export markets ... to strengthen economic resilience," and "integrate AI with industries to enhance productivity and competitiveness."

The NDC said the government will continue using the IMD rankings as a reference for policy reform, particularly in the face of global uncertainties such as the United States' new tariff policies.