Geneva: The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) has ranked Switzerland, Sweden, the United States of America, the Republic of Korea, and Singapore as the top five economies in the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2025, followed by the United Kingdom, Finland, the Netherlands, Denmark, and China, which entered the top 10 for the first time.
According to Emirates News Agency, the report indicates a slowdown in growth for innovation investments, which is affecting the overall innovation outlook. The GII uses approximately 80 indicators, including research and development (R and D) spending, venture capital (VC) deals, high-tech exports, and intellectual property filings to evaluate the innovative performance of nearly 140 world economies. The GII is considered the global benchmark for policymakers, business leaders, and others to promote innovation and build robust innovation ecosystems.
Now in its 18th edition, the GII highlights a group of middle-income economies, led by China, India (38th), Trkiye (43rd), Vietnam (44th), the Philippines (50th), Indonesia (55th), and Morocco (57th), which continue to climb the ranks. Since the start of the decade, Saudi Arabia (46th), Qatar (48th), Brazil (52nd), Mauritius (53rd), Bahrain (62nd), and Jordan (65th) have emerged as the fastest innovation climbers.
WIPO Director-General Daren Tang commented, “The GII 2025 maps the contours of innovation across the world, showing us that the fastest-advancing economies in the GII are those that view innovation as a fundamental engine of resilience, growth, and competitiveness. This year’s GII reveals both encouraging progress as well as challenges that still need to be addressed for countries to fully harness their innovation potential.”
In the GII 2025, 17 low- and middle-income economies are performing above expectations for their development level, with India and Vietnam as long-standing innovation overperformers. Sub-Saharan Africa leads in the number of economies surpassing innovation expectations, with South Africa (61st), Senegal (89th), and Rwanda (104th) at the forefront.
Among the key findings of the GII report: R and D growth decreased to 2.9% in 2024, a slowdown from the previous year’s 4.4% increase, marking the lowest growth since the financial crisis of 2010. WIPO projects further deceleration in 2025, with growth expected at 2.3%.
Corporate R and D spending experienced a slowdown, increasing by only 1% due to persistently high inflation, which is significantly lower than the 4.6% average of the past decade. While ICT-related firms, especially in AI-intensive sectors, and software and pharma companies expanded their R and D budgets, manufacturing firms in the automotive sector and consumer goods cut R and D spending amid declining revenues.
VC investment values exhibited a rebound, with deal values rising 7.7% in 2024, largely driven by US-based megadeals and increased investment in generative AI. However, excluding these investments, VC values would have contracted. The number of VC deals fell 4.4% globally, marking the third consecutive year of decline, indicating ongoing investor caution outside a limited set of sectors and regions.
VC investment, which had been gradually extending into a broader range of non-ICT sectors and emerging markets, now appears to be returning to its traditional focus on US-based AI- and ICT-related investments, failing to maintain the previous momentum toward broader sectoral and geographic diversification observed after the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw strong VC influx into Latin America and Africa.
International patent filings via WIPO showed a slight rebound of 0.5%, with significant growth in the Republic of Korea at 7%, while the US, Japan, and Germany continued to see declines.