Competitiveness decline ‘not backed up’ by data

THE Philippines’ decline in a global competitiveness ranking isn’t “backed up by actual data” but the listing should still prompt the government to work on improvements, a Finance department official said.

“The apparent crash was resoundingly loud, setting off alarms,” Finance Undersecretary Gil Beltran said in a statement released on Tuesday, referring to the 2018 World Competitiveness Yearbook that ranked the Philippines in 50th out of 63 economies, down nine spots from a year earlier.