Ⅴ Evaluation of the global financial competitiveness

i General indicators

Table 8 shows the ranking of the global financial competitiveness of 32 economies in the world，with the US，UK and Japan occupying the top 3 positions and the European and American countries occupying 7 positions of the top 10; 3 of the Asian economies entered the world’s top 10，with Japan ranking the 3rd，Chinese Inland the 5th，and Korea the 7th.Compared with data from the Global Financial Competitiveness Report2022，the most significant changes are that China rose from 8th place in 2022 to 5th place in 2023，while Canada fell from 6th place in 2022 to 10th place in 2023.

Table 8 Rating of the General Indicators for Global Financial Competitiveness

Table 8 Rating of the General Indicators for Global Financial Competitiveness续

The global financial competitiveness of the US remains 1st in the world，with its score 30.14 points higher（slightly smaller than that of 2022 at 34.14）than that of the United Kingdom，which ranks 2nd.This remains the group with the largest gap between scores of the two adjacent economies，indicating the US maintaining its prominent competitive strength in the global financial field.Judged by five primary indicators，the US again tops the world concerning three indicators，including the competitiveness of currency，the competitiveness of financial technology and the competitiveness in international financial governance，with the competitiveness of the financial infrastructure ranking the 5th as that of 2022，and the competitiveness of its financial industry dropping from world No.3 to the fourth place globally.Among the three leading primary indicators of the US，the strength of the competitiveness of currency comes as the most prominent，47.27 points higher than that of the Euro Zone at the 2nd place.Compared to the difference in 2022（40.97 points），there has been a significant expansion，indicating that the US dollar is still strong，and the international status of the US dollar generates the most powerful force for the US in maintaining its global financial competitiveness.

UK ranks 2nd globally in terms of global financial competitiveness，with its competitive advantage mainly from the competitiveness of financial industry and financial infrastructure.The ranking of the competitiveness of UK’s financial industry has jumped from 5th in 2022 to 1st in the world in 2023，mainly due to the fact that，apart from the stability of the financial system，all secondary indicators of financial industry competitiveness rank in the top 5.UK tops the world concerning the competitiveness of its financial infrastructure at 21.30 points higher than that of Hong Kong SAR of China at the 2nd position，which fully demonstrates the accumulated strength of UK as a classic capitalist country in this field.In addition，British pound，remaining global currency of great significance，pillars the global competitiveness of UK.Chinese Inland ranks 5th in the world in terms of global financial competitiveness，up 3 places from the previous year with 0.001 points higher than France at the 6th place.In terms of the overall indicators，the gap between Chinese Inland and the US，which comes at the first place，is decreasing year by year，with 43.91 points in 2021，42.13 points in 2022，and 40.47 points in 2023.Among the 5 first primary indicators，Chinese Inland stays the nearest to the world’s first in terms of the competitiveness of the financial industry at 17.66 points.^[1] The past two decades witnessed the sustainable and rapid growth of China’s financial industry with the world’s largest banking system cultivated and the world’s second-largest stock market and bond market established.The efficiency and activity of China’s financial system and the influence of its international financial centers have been significantly improved，with the three sub-indicators for them ranking among the top 10 in the world.In terms of the competitiveness of currency，one of the primary indicators，China sees the largest gap between itself and the world’s leaders，at 90.12 points lower than that of the US.Since 2009，China has gradually promoted the internationalization of RMB，and RMB was included in the SDR currency basket in 2016.In May 2022，the proportion of RMB in the SDR currency basket went from 10.92% to 12.28%.It can be seen that the internationalization of RMB has also made significant progress in the past 10 years，though the international status of RMB still does not match China’s economic volume.Compared with the US dollar and the Euro，there is still big room for the RMB to be further internationalized.In 2023，China ranked third in FinTech competitiveness，with significant progress（10th in 2021 and 5th in 2022）.The gap between China and the first ranked US has been narrowing down annually（32.78 points in 2021，27.07 points in 2022，and 22.91 points in 2023），with the absolute score improving continuously（60.27 points in 2021，66.28 points in 2022，and reaching 71.64 points，over 70 points，for the first time in 2023）.The progress of FinTech competitiveness in Chinese Inland comes from the substantial improvement of the development potential of FinTech industry.Due to the significant increase of labor input in FinTech industry，the absolute score of the FinTech industry development potential indicator in Chinese Inland rose from 16.07 last year to 35.12，and the ranking of this category also rose from 19th to 13th，promoting the overall ranking of China’s FinTech competitiveness.Overall，China has advantages in computing power，but there is still room to improve in terms of user access and industrial development potential.