The International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland, released its 2025 World Competitiveness Yearbook on Tuesday, ranking Taiwan 6th among 69 evaluated economies. This marks a two-spot rise from last year and Taiwan’s best performance to date.
Among the top five economies were Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong, Denmark, and the United Arab Emirates. Notably, Taiwan has ranked first for five consecutive years among economies with populations over 20 million.
According to National Development Council’s Department of Economic Development Deputy Director Chen Mei-chu (陳美菊), Taiwan’s economy grew strongly last year, achieving a growth rate of 4.84%.
Chen highlighted that Taiwan ranked second globally in the economic resilience indicator, based on a survey of global entrepreneurs conducted by the IMD. Furthermore, Taiwan placed fourth worldwide in economic complexity, a measure of the knowledge and technology embedded in its exports.
Chen attributed Taiwan’s rise in the rankings largely to strong performances in key sectors such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence, and high-performance computing, which boosted overall export performance. Consequently, Taiwan’s ranking in the “economic performance” indicator surged from 26th to 10th, a critical factor behind the nation’s overall improvement.
Chen emphasized that these achievements demonstrate international recognition of Taiwan’s economic strength and confirm the solid strategic position of its high-tech industry within the global supply chain.