O World Bank released this week the results of biennial survey LPI – Logistics Performance Index, which compares the logistics performance of 160 countries in International Trade. The central objective of this research is to subsidize government actions, aiming at the development of logistics as a facilitator of trade between nations.
Recent LPI results indicate that Brazil has evolved from 65th in 2014 to 55th in 2016 in the ranking of surveyed countries. This evolution can be, at least, partly explained by the drop in import cargo handling in the period, due to the strong devaluation of the Real. However, one should be careful when analyzing these results, as the assessment is based on the perception of, mainly, Freight Forwarders, which allows us to state that the measurement does not have a high level of intrinsic precision.
It would be more sensible, then, to compare the relative position of the performance level considering the ranking quartiles between the different editions of the survey. In this sense, it can be seen in Figure 1 below that Brazil's logistics performance has fluctuated slightly above the average of the second quartile range (between 40th and 80th positions), throughout all editions of the LPI between 2007 and 2016. This characterizes that Brazil's performance has been above the world average and far below those countries at the top of the LPI ranking. The visual trend observed in Figure 1 is worsening, but inconclusive due to the short historical series, with high data dispersion.
Figure 1 – LPI Ranking of 160 countries
Source: World Bank
When evaluating the dimension of the LPI related to Logistics Infrastructure, the country's situation apparently improved from 54th in 2014 to 47th in 2016, which could also be explained by the reduction in cargo handling in the period, mentioned above. In this regard, with the exception of 2010, Figure 2 indicates that Brazil also presents a consistent performance within the range of the 2nd quartile of the ranking (between 40th and 80th positions). These results demonstrate that Brazil's Logistics Infrastructure is above the world average during the survey period, but far below the countries at the top of this ranking. The observed visual trend is worsening, but inconclusive due to the short historical series, with high data dispersion.
Figure 2 – Infrastructure ranking of 160 countries
Source: World Bank
It is interesting to see in Figure 3 that, to a large extent, the best evaluated countries tend to remain at the top of the ranking. On the other hand, comparing the performance of the Brics countries (group formed by Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa), Brazil competes with India, with Russia consistently at the bottom of this ranking.
Figure 3 - Evolution of the Logistics Performance Index
Source: World Bank
This research will be part of Vertical's program "Infraestrutura Logística no Brasil" during our XXII International Supply Chain Forum, which will be presented by a senior economist at the World Bank, and the analysis of its results will be debated by specialists in the sector. This is a unique moment to discuss the challenges and opportunities related to the Brazilian reality vis-à-vis the global context.
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