Singapore has recaptured its global first placing in the 2026 IMD World Competitiveness Ranking – a position it last held in 2024, before dropping to second place last year. The top nine countries this year all featured in the global top 10 list last year except for the United States, which was 13th in 2025. This year, it came in at 10th position, relegating Qatar to 11th place; Qatar was ninth last year.
The annual index of 70 economies was published on June 18. The ranking is based on 92 survey questions and 172 pieces of data drawn from measurements across four factors:
“Geopolitical conditions are worsening, and global fragmentation is increasing,” says Arturo Bris, Director, IMD World Competitiveness Center. “Nations with their own tried-and-tested, credible institutions gain an advantage in this context because, as the international systems cease to serve so many national needs, businesses can carry on as usual.” This signals a shift in the drivers of competitiveness from the traditional emphasis on cost, scale, output and innovation.
Singapore’s return to first place illustrates a broader theme that has been running through the 2026 results and that is, “the adaptive capacity of an economy to course-correct efficiently has become an important competitive asset”. Simply put, it highlights how quickly agile economies can regain their momentum.
Singapore’s top ranking is in large part buoyed by a seven-place leap to global first place in the Business Efficiency factor. Its performance is not the product of a single standout factor but “a rebalancing of its historically cross-cutting competitiveness profile”, says the report. For the city-state, the most significant shift is the “extensive recovery” in Business Efficiency, driven by improvements in all five sub-factors.
An analysis of the factors and sub-factors will show that economic competitiveness today is a contest of institutional credibility. The more fragmented the world becomes, the more valuable predictable rules, enforceable commitments, and legitimate state capacity become.
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