Greece is an inclusive development laggard, WEF report shows
Greece is rock-bottom among 29 advanced economies on the Inclusive Development Index in this year’s Inclusive Growth and Development Report published by the World Economic Forum. Greece also registered the worst five-year trend in scores among this group.
This country barely makes the average in the seven principal policy domains (pillars) the report assesses, while in a number of sub-pillars it is below average, such as in the service Greeks get for their high taxes.
The report states on Greece that “several developing economies manage a higher score, which indicates how urgently reforms must continue as the country struggles to emerge from a deep economic crisis.”
It adds that there are “many areas in which Greece must make progress to put in place the drivers of future growth and inclusiveness. Particular priorities include reforming the education and training systems to improve outcomes and narrow the gaps between students from different socioeconomic backgrounds; addressing high levels of corruption and red tape that are holding back business creation and development; and incentivizing companies to move out of the informal sector to create better employment opportunities and widen the tax base needed for the government’s coffers.”
On a scale of 1 to 7, with 1 being the worst performance and 7 the best, Greece’s score per pillar is the following: In education and skills it got 4.85, with 5.88 for access but just 3.81 percent for quality of education; in basic services and infrastructure it obtained 4.75; in corruption it garnered just 3.53, with the business and political ethics sub-pillar at just 3.20 percent; in financial intermediation of real economy investment Greece took 3.50 and in asset building and entrepreneurship it scored just 3.61; in employment it reached 3.66 and in fiscal resources a meager 3.58, as the report records that the high taxation operates as a counterincentive for labor and investments.
