Public trust in politicians has improved once again since last year as ranking improved by two spots from last year according to the 2016/2017 Global Competitiveness Report. I have no idea how this is happening to be honest with the garbage crisis and the level of corruption that we’ve reached in the last couple of years.

Lebanon still globally ranks 101st out of 138 countries and was ranked third-worse in terms of government debt (139.1%).

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Here are few key indicators and how they compared to last year’s report:

Negative Indicators:
Intellectual property protection: 123/138 (vs 139/140 in 2015).
Diversion of public funds: 101/138 (vs 137/140 in 2015).
Public trust in politicians: 125/138 (vs 127/140 in 2015).
Irregular payments and bribes: 120/138 (vs 127/140 in 2015).
Wastefulness of government spending: 135/138 (vs 139/140 in 2015).
Transparency of government policy making: 126/138 (vs 130/140 in 2015).
Reliability of police services: 106/138 (vs 130/140 in 2015).
Quality of overall infrastructure: 131/138 (vs 138/140 in 2015).
Quality of electricity supply: 135/138 (vs 137/140 in 2015).
Women in labor force, ratio to men: 131/138 (vs 134/140 in 2015).

On the other hand, here are some positive indicators:
HIV prevalence, % adult pop: 1/138
Individuals using Internet: 38/138
Quality of primary education: 16/138
Quality of math and science education: 6/138
Quality of management schools: 9/138
Soundness of banks: 34/138 (slight drop)
Capacity for Innovation: 38/138
Availability of scientists and engineers: 18/138

You can check out the full report [here].