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Sweden falls in new globalization ranking

Sweden dropped to seventh place in a globalization survey conducted by consultants Ernst & Young, down two places since 2011.

Published: 23 January 2013 10:50 CET

Sweden falls in new globalization ranking

The survey, which was based on interviews with 730 global business executives from around the world, measured the degree of globalization of the 60 countries with the largest gross domestic product (GDP).

Factors considered included openness to trade, capital movements, exchange of technology and ideas, labour movements, and cultural integration.

“This latest edition of our annual globalization report clearly shows that globalization is evolving against a highly volatile economic backdrop,” said James Turley, Chairman and CEO of Ernst & Young, in a statement.

“Although globalization continues, its pace has slowed from pre-recession levels and its nature has changed.”

Sweden, which kept an almost identical score as in 2011, performed best in its openness to trade, yet suffered its lowest score in the technology sector.

Finishing in first place in the ranking was Hong Kong, followed by Singapore and Ireland.

Sweden’s neighbours also fared well in the list, with Denmark finishing eighth at almost the same score as Sweden, Finland 13th, and Norway 23rd.

Top Ten countries in globalization ranking by Enrst & Young

1. Hong Kong

2. Singapore

3. Ireland

4. Belgium

5. Switzerland

6. Netherlands

7. Sweden

8. Denmark

9. Hungary

10. United Kingdom

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Why Norway is set to lose top spot on UN development ranking

File photo: AFP

The UN’s Human Development Index (HDI) ranks countries on how well they provide conditions for people to reach their potential, using parameters including life expectancy at birth, expected years of schooling and gross national income.

Norway is top of the 2020 HDI, a ranking not uncommon for the Nordic nation.

The report, which comes from the UN Development programme (UNDP), ranks countries in relation to progress on the UN’s global development targets. Like it was this year, Norway is regularly ranked the world’s top nation by the UN.

Despite this consistency, Norway can no longer call itself the ‘world’s best country’ based on the ranking, national broadcaster NRK writes.

A new addition to the ranking will include the costs to nature and the environment of gross national product. That will make CO2 admissions and individual carbon footprints part of the broader assessment of development.

According to the UNDP, emissions are a new and experimental lens through which to view development. But the inclusion of climate and the environment gives the index a different look.

When CO2 emissions and resource consumption are factored in, Norway finds itself in a much more moderate 16th place on the UN development ranking.

The adjusted list is yet to be published by the UN, but the Norwegian national broadcaster has been informed of the new positions, NRK states in the report.

Norway’s CO2 emissions of 8.3 tonnes per resident are among the 30 worst values of included countries, and it also fares poorly in a measurement of material resource use per resident, resulting in a lower overall position.

“Norway loses its top placing because of our high imprint on the planet. This is an import debate and it’s time we had it,” Bård Vegar Solhjell, director of the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), told NRK.

READ ALSO: Norway ranked world's top nation for 'human development'

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