Strategic consultancy firm Kearney has published its report on world cities. Luxembourg retained fourth place in the Global Cities Outlook ranking, which assesses the future state of cities and their ability to prepare for their future status as global hubs. "A slightly weaker performance in the economic dimension was offset by a better performance in innovation, mainly driven by entrepreneurship. Luxembourg's ability to withstand economic uncertainty in Europe is evident, thanks to a historically strong banking sector, a central pillar of its economy," the report stated.
Luxembourg has nothing to envy from other major cities in Europe and even the rest of the world, ranking behind San Francisco, Munich (up seven places) and Copenhagen, and just ahead of Seoul, Stockholm and Paris. In Germany, Dusseldorf is in tenth place.
Another strong point for Luxembourg was its "response to Western immigration policies and the exodus of top talent from traditional economic centres". According to the consultancy firm, this reflects the "adaptive behaviour" of the Luxembourg capital. However, the report does not mention the difficulty of access to housing, which could slow down the arrival of new residents.
In its report on world cities, which includes the Global Cities Outlook, Kearney also publishes its Global Cities Index, which this time aims to measure and analyse the connectivity of cities and metropolises around the world. "This year's GCI and GCO both reflect, in different ways, cities' responses to persistent and even intensified geopolitical and economic instability", said the consultancy.
More specifically, this index is based on a number of criteria such as the ability to attract human capital, but also on more technical criteria such as internet speed and the presence and efficiency of data centres. In this ranking, Luxembourg is far from the leader, coming in at 76th place, well behind Brussels (16th), Paris (3rd) and the German cities of Berlin (20th), Frankfurt (32nd) and Munich (42nd).
Last August, the international human resources mobility specialist Airinc also published its Global 150 cities index, which looks at the attractiveness of cities. The Luxembourg capital was also ranked fourth.
Read the original French-language version of this news report