Finance & Capital Market

Bahrain among top 60 for economic openness

Bahrain is ranked 57th in the world, achieving its highest scores in economic openness and quality of institutions, said a top official.

Ramachandran Narayanan, partner and head of Advisory at professional services firm KPMG in Bahrain, was commenting on KPMG’s 2019 edition of the Growth Promise Indicators (GPI) index, which ranks 180 countries to assess their productivity potential, rating them from zero to 10, based on 26 indices.

The report finds that the front-runners are truly global with countries in Asia and Europe accounting for the top 10 places.

Switzerland leads the way, followed by the Netherlands. Elsewhere in the top 10, Luxembourg and Finland have leapfrogged Norway while this year’s ranking has also seen Mauritius, the Bahamas and South Korea make significant ground.

Elsewhere, investment in infrastructure, particularly in technology readiness has paid off for South Korea who has seen the biggest improvement in its GPI ranking of any developed economy, while India’s commitment to greater transparency and improved business rights has helped it rise four places. The UAE has also moved up four places due to advances in infrastructure, chiefly transport.

“The index showcases that top performing countries globally that have been able to lay the foundations for solid growth are the ones to follow. Smaller nations, such as South Korea and the UAE, are also moving quickly up the rankings, while developing economies are often making progress faster than their developed counterparts,” Narayanan added.

“In Bahrain, openness of the economy and the quality of institutions have led to the Kingdom’s ranking in the top 60, whereby both are important factors in promoting sustainable economic growth.”

Yael Selfin, chief economist at KPMG in the UK and author of the report said: “Globally, many countries still lag behind on important indicators, such as the transparency of policymaking and the quality of regulation. As we highlight, this is one area where improvements can trigger wider changes that lay the groundwork for future growth.”- TradeArabia News Service