Disruption, resilience & future scenarios for global trade

The Global Freight Resilience Index© (GFRI) 2022 is the third edition of this report, launched in May at Davos alongside the World Economic Forum annual meeting. The Index comprises two sub-pillars: Policy Opportunity and Freight Performance.

The 2022 Index arrives after countries have not only learned from the disruptions to global supply chains brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic but have implemented policies to overcome these crises. Companies, meanwhile, have also had to adapt as 94% of Fortune 1000 businesses have faced supply chain disruption. To respond to these trends and prepare for future black swan events, policymakers can enhance freight resilience by turning challenges into opportunities and making thoughtful, sustainable investments to build and maintain competitive advantages.

Singapore tops the GFRI 2022 rankings once again, based on continued performance across most dimensions of freight resilience. Germany returns to the top ten in the index following strong trade growth and technology investments, replacing New Zealand. New Zealand’s laudable efforts in pandemic response have come at an economic cost, with GDP growth forecast to be the lowest in the OECD and GFRI score the second-worst impacted globally. From a dynamic standpoint, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and the Asia Pacific regions have seen the greatest volatility in both winners and losers, hosting 8 of the ten strongest improvements and 9 of the ten largest declines in GFRI ranking.

The report contains many insights on logistics resilience. The results clearly point to the need to identify efficient trade routes and establish diverse networks of supply chains to ensure smooth flows of goods and materials. The top 10 is dominated by nations such as Switzerland, Sweden, Netherlands, and Denmark – countries in which tighter integration and communication between supply networks are coordinated between both public and private sectors.

This report is published at a time when policy implementation following Covid-19 has developed to mitigate the initial impact of the pandemic, and governments are beginning to assess and re-evaluate these policies to continue supporting their logistics sectors moving forward.