The Philippines experienced a decline in its standing in the World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) for this year, despite showing improvements in its overall economic performance.

According to the recently released WCY by the International Institute of Management Development (IMD), the Philippines now holds the 52nd spot among 64 economies, marking a decrease from its previous rank of 48th.

The decline in competitiveness for the Philippines was evident in three out of the four main factors analyzed.

Particularly in the government efficiency category, the country experienced declines across various sub-factors, including public finance, tax policy, institutional framework, business legislation, and societal framework.

Furthermore, the Philippines had a decline in business efficiency, dropping to the 40th position from the previous year's 39th, while the infrastructure factor also showed a decrease from 57th to 58th.

On a positive note, the Philippines achieved a significant improvement in the economic performance factor, ascending to the 40th rank from last year's 53rd.

The report also emphasized that the Philippines has maintained its ranking as the 13th out of 14 economies in the Asia-Pacific region for the past six years.

The WCY evaluates economies based on four Competitiveness Factors: Economic Performance, Government Efficiency, Business Efficiency, and Infrastructure, using a total of 255 ranked criteria.

The results of this year's WCY reflect the influence of various crises, such as global inflation, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Ukraine conflict.

Within the Asia-Pacific region, Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong were recognized as the three most competitive economies, ranked 4th, 6th, and 7th, respectively.

Due to limited data reliability, Russia and Ukraine were not assessed for this year's report.

On the other hand, Kuwait was included in the survey for the first time and obtained a rank of 38th among the 64 economies evaluated.