Germany became the leader in the Bloomberg Innovation Index 2020 ranking, overtaking South Korea, which has been at the top of the list over the past six years.

Top 10 most innovative countries in the world according to Bloomberg Innovation Index 2020:

1. Germany;
2. South Korea;
3. Singapore;
4. Switzerland;
5. Sweden;
6. Israel;
7. Finland;
8. Denmark;
9. The USA;
10. France.

The success of Germany. Reasons
German analysts say the manufacturing sector is still highly competitive and a source of innovation. Germany’s results on such indicators are still strong and much better than might be expected due to recent economic weakness.

Germany has taken a leading position in the field of value-added production, high technology, and patent activity. South Korea lost leadership due to declining levels of productivity. In this category, it dropped from 18th place to 29th.

According to experts, the manufacturing sector in South Korea remains highly competitive and innovative. Germany’s indicators in this regard are better, but experts advised it not to rest on her laurels.

What does it mean?

First, German service innovations are not as impressive as South Korean ones. Secondly, almost a third of research and development expenses are spent on the automotive industry, while environmental degradation, trade conflicts and a slowdown in economic growth negatively affect demand for cars.

What about others?
Singapore rose to third place from the sixth one due to increased productivity and the best higher education in the world in terms of efficiency. The United States took 9th place in the ranking, dropping one notch.

Among the 20 listed companies with the highest R&D expenses in recent years, half are from the United States, led by Amazon.com Inc., Alphabet Inc., and Microsoft Corp. Germany ranked second with four companies: Volkswagen AG, Daimler AG, Siemens AG, and Bayer AG.

Japan dropped to 12th place, losing three positions compared to last year. While China ranked 15th, improving rankings and narrowing the gap.
Russia took 26th place in it, having improved its position compared to last year by one position.

Bloomberg’s annual innovation index is coming out for the eighth time in the 2020 year. In the study, experts analyze countries, including in terms of research and development costs, production capacities and the number of high-tech public companies in each. In 2020, Bloomberg experts analyzed 105 economies in the world.