The Global Competitiveness Report 2016–2017 comes out in the context of persistent slow growth and a near-term outlook that is fraught with renewed uncertainty fueled by continued geopolitical turmoil, financial market fragility, and sustained high debt levels in emerging markets. The report assesses 138 economies and defines competitiveness as the set of institutions, policies, and factors that determine the level of productivity of an economy, which in turn sets the level of prosperity that the country can achieve. This indicator is a combination of the Extent of disclosure index (transparency of transactions), the Extent of director liability index (liability for self-dealing), and the Ease of shareholder suit index (shareholders’ ability to sue officers and directors for misconduct).
Source: World Economic Forum