Khaleej Times, Wednesday, Feb 15, 2023 | Rajab 24, 1444
Economic Diversification Index reveals how countries adapted to shocks, diversified economies
Emirates:
Covid-19 has demonstrated how diversified economies can better adapt to major
shocks, revealed the Global Economic Diversification Index 2023, the latest
edition of the report, launched by the Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government
(MBRSG) with a panel of global experts from the IMF and the World Bank at the
World Government Summit in Dubai.
The second edition of the Index, which is developed by the MBRSG in partnership
with The World Government Summit, expands its coverage in 2023 to a total of 105
countries, up from 83 last year. It continues to cover all geographies, resource
and non-resource-based economies over a period of 22 years. The Index quantifies
countries’ diversification journey globally, by specifically focusing on three
aspects of diversification: Output diversification, trade diversification and
government revenue diversification.
The EDI is the first comprehensive global assessment of economic diversification
that allows for an international, cross-country, and regional comparison and
ranking of countries. As a policy and decision making tool, it is designed to
allow countries to visualise their global ranking on each measure of
diversification (production, government revenue, trade), across regional and
income groups and within their natural resource grouping. The data of the EDI is
already informing policy pathways across governments and with international
agencies around the world.
Country and regional rankings
Overall, the 2023 EDI rankings revealed that the top 10 most diversified
economies have remained the same. The US, China and Germany have held on to
their top three positions. However, the gap between the US and China narrowed
from a 21.6-point difference in 2019 to just a six-point difference in 2022. The
results also show that the size of the economy is not an impediment to economic
diversification as several of the top 10 countries, which are relatively small
economies, including Singapore, Switzerland and Ireland, were able to diversify
their economic output base and trade.
The report indicates that over time, the gap between the most and least
diversified nations has mostly widened. The MENA region has witnessed a notable
improvement towards the latter part of the 2010s decade as many oil exporters
began to accelerate their diversification plans. Meanwhile, in the GCC region,
the UAE and Saudi Arabia have made the most significant economic diversification
progress.