The Yearbook ranks a mix of 61 industrialised and emerging economies in terms of ability to create and foster an environment sustaining competitive enterprises. Country data are evaluated based on specific criteria, categorised in terms of four competitiveness factors, namely government efficiency, business efficiency, economic performance and infrastructure.
South Africa’s economic performance has improved by seven places to position 49 in 2015, following an improvement in international trade and attaining the lowest cost-of-living index that topped the world rankings. Government efficiency though is indicated to have dropped to position 40 in 2015, after having been at position 32 two years earlier.