Pretoria – South Africa is the highest ranked country in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a report by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

“South Africa moves up by four places to attain 50th position this year, remaining the highest-ranked country in sub-Saharan Africa and the second-placed among the BRICS economies. The country benefits from the large size of its economy, particularly by regional standards (it is ranked 25th in the market size pillar),” read the Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012.

The report was released on Wednesday by the WEF and assesses the ability of countries to provide high levels of prosperity to their citizens, depending on how productively they use available resources.

This year’s report features a record number of 142 economies, including developed and developing nations.

South Africa was found to be doing well on measures of the quality of institutions, property rights and the accountability of its private institutions, among others. [Read more…]