(Business in Cameroon) - In its 2016-2017 report on most competitive economies worldwide, the World Economic Forum (WEF) ranks Cameroon at the 119^th position (out of 140) on a global scale, and in the 20^th position in Africa. The country thus drops in this ranking, losing 5 spots, as it was ranked 114^th in the 2015-2016 report, after winning two spots.

Presented as the economic engine in the CEMAC area, Cameroon is overtaken in this ranking by its Gabonese neighbour, who gets the 108^th position worldwide and 11^th at the African level. Compared to last year, Gabon, who is bearing the brunt of the international situation on the price of crude oil (oil represents more than 50% of the country’s earnings) also lost 5 spots.

This year again, as was the case on the 2015-2016 ranking, Cameroon is ahead of large African economic nations such as Nigeria, ranked 26^th in Africa and 127^th globally.

At the African level, Mauritius (45^th worldwide) remains the most competitive country on the continent, followed by South Africa, (47^th), Rwanda (52^nd), Botswana (64^th), Morocco (70^th), Namibia (84^th) and Algeria (87^th). Tunisia (95^th), Kenya (96^th) and Côte d’Ivoire (99^th) close the African Top 10 of this ranking dominated at the world level by Switzerland, Singapore and the USA.

As a reminder, to establish this ranking of the most competitive economies worldwide, WEF uses about one hundred economic indicators, such as quality of infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, market size, technological development and innovation…

BRM