Philippine Performance for the Past Five Years
| Indicator* | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
| No. of countries | 144 | 140 | 138 | 137 | 140 |
| Overall ranking | 52 | 47 | 57 | 56 | 56 |
| Institutions | 67 | 77 | 91 | 94 | 101 |
| Infrastructure | 91 | 90 | 95 | 97 | 92 |
| Macroeconomic stability (formerly macroeconomic environment) |
26 | 24 | 20 | 22 | 43 |
| Health (formerly health and primary education) |
92 | 86 | 81 | 82 | 101 |
| Skills (formerly higher education and training) |
64 | 63 | 58 | 55 | 67 |
| Product market (formerly goods market efficiency) |
70 | 80 | 99 | 103 | 60 |
| Labor market (formerly labor market efficiency) |
91 | 82 | 86 | 84 | 36 |
| Financial system (formerly financial market development) |
49 | 48 | 48 | 52 | 39 |
| ICT adoption (formerly technological readiness) |
69 | 68 | 83 | 83 | 67 |
| Market size | 35 | 30 | 31 | 27 | 32 |
| Business dynamism (formerly business sophistication) |
46 | 42 | 52 | 58 | 39 |
| Innovation capability (formerly innovation) |
52 | 48 | 62 | 65 | 67 |
* The WEF changed its methodology for 2018 wherein the countries are scored on a scale of 0 to 100 instead of the usual 0 to 7. Indicators have also changed in terms as noted.
The country maintained its 2017 ranking at 56th out of 140 countries. In spite of the seemingly unchanged ranking, there was a slight improvement in terms of percentile rank compared to 2016’s figure (60.00 pctl vs. 59.12 pctl).
Market size primarily drove this consistent performance, clinching the 32nd spot out of 140 countries. Labor market also leapt to 36th/140 from 84th/137. Similar to previous years, financial system, business dynamism and macroeconomic stability buttress poor performance in other aspects of competitiveness (e.g. health).
Issues from 2016 persist in 2017 such as inefficient government bureaucracy, inadequate supply of infrastructure and corruption. The World Economic Forum also suggests that the government must improve performance in health and education. The government must also resolve political unrest as the pillar of Institutions has been experiencing a consistent decline in its ranking.
Philippine vs. ASEAN Performance (Current vs. Past Year)
| Country* | 2018 Overall Ranking |
2018 Percentile Rank** |
2017 Percentile Rank*** |
Change in Percentile Rank (2018 vs. 2017) |
| Brunei | 62 | 55.71 | 66.42 | -10.71 |
| Cambodia | 110 | 21.43 | 31.39 | -9.96 |
| Indonesia | 45 | 67.86 | 73.72 | -5.87 |
| Lao PDR | 112 | 20.00 | 28.47 | -8.47 |
| Malaysia | 25 | 82.14 | 83.21 | -1.07 |
| Myanmar | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Philippines | 56 | 60.00 | 59.12 | +0.88 |
| Singapore | 2 | 98.57 | 97.81 | +0.76 |
| Thailand | 38 | 72.86 | 76.64 | -3.79 |
| Vietnam | 77 | 59.85 | 59.85 | -14.85 |
* The closer to 100, the better the score.
** 140 countries were measured.
*** 137 countries were measured
Generally, the ASEAN experienced a decrease in percentile ranks except for the Philippines (+0.9) and Singapore (+0.8). The Philippines was the biggest gainer while Vietnam the biggest loser at a decrease of -14.9 pctl.
Singapore still led the pack, followed by Malaysia and Thailand. The Philippines ranked 5th out of the 9 countries, better than last year at 7th out of 9.
Indicator Overview
The Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) measures the set of institutions, policies, and factors that determine the current productivity and potential economic growth of a country. This basically means that the higher the competitiveness of a country’s economy, the higher probability of progress throughout the succeeding years.
The index endeavors to take into account countries’ different stages of economic development, and organizes the pillars into three sub-indexes and 12 pillars, organized as follows:
- Basic requirements: Institutions, Infrastructure, Macroeconomic Stability, and Health and Primary Education;
- Efficiency enhancers: Higher Education and Training, Goods Market Efficiency, Labour Market Efficiency, Financial Market Sophistication, Technological Readiness, and Market Size; and
- Innovation and sophistication: Business Sophistication and Innovation.
The overall ranking (in percentile rank) for this index is monitored for Chapter 5.
Further Information
Frequency of update: Yearly
Publication of update: 26 September 2017
Period of study: Executive Opinion Survey held between January and June of the same year (i.e. Survey for Global Competitiveness Report for 2016-2017 was held between January and June 2016)
Link to the main site: https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-global-competitiveness-report-2017-2018
Historical data: https://www.weforum.org/
