Nepal has secured the top spot among its South Asian peers in the Inclusive Development Index (IDI) 2018.

A report published by World Economic Forum (WEF) today states that Nepal’s ranking improved five points and secured 22nd place among 74 emerging economies in the IDI, taking the lead in terms of inclusive growth in the entire South Asian region.

According to The Himalayan Times Report, the 2018 index has analysed the progress in inclusive growth of 103 economies of the world on the basis of overall growth and development, inclusion and inter-generational equity.

The IDI has measured the inclusive growth progress by dividing the economies into two groups — advanced economies and emerging economies.

As per the report, India’s ranking slipped two spots to stand at 62nd in the IDI while Pakistan improved its standing from 52nd in 2017 to 47th place in IDI 2018. Similarly, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka ranked at 34th and 40th in the IDI 2018, against 36th and 39th positions in IDI 2017, respectively.

However, other three South Asian economies — Afghanistan, Bhutan and Maldives — are not listed in the IDI by WEF.

Nepal was able to obtain a score of 4.15 this year, positioning the country in the range between ‘slowly advancing’ and ‘rapidly advancing’ among the countries grouped together in the emerging economies category.

Meanwhile, Lithuania has topped the emerging economies’ chart in IDI this year, receiving 4.86 IDI score. The other top inclusive emerging economies include Hungary, Azerbaijan, Latvia and Poland. Norway, on the other hand, has retained its spot as the world’s most advanced economy obtaining 6.08 IDI mark.

The other four top advanced economies are Iceland, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Denmark.

Meanwhile, Nepal’s northern neighbour China ranked 26th among the emerging economies in the index.

The IDI is an annual assessment of 103 countries’ economic performance measuring how countries perform on different dimensions of economic progress in addition to gross domestic product (GDP).

IDI is a WEF-initiated project which aims to inform and enable sustained and inclusive economic progress through deepened public-private cooperation through thought leadership and analysis, strategic dialogue and concrete cooperation, including by accelerating social impact through corporate action. According to a report, Nepal secured 22 followed by Bangladesh 34, Sri Lanka 40, Pakistan 47 and India 62.