Logistics performance is key to economic growth and competitiveness. It determines how effectively a country connects to global networks and accesses world markets. Inefficient logistics raises the cost of doing business and reduces the potential for both international and domestic integration. Research shows that logistics performance and freight connectivity have a higher impact on the costs of trade than geographical distance. The Logistics Performance Index (LPI) has been conceived as a synthetic metric of how well countries are connected.

On July 24, 2018 the World Bank published the sixth edition of Connecting to Compete, the biennial Logistics Performance Index report. The first LPI report was published in 2007 using an identical approach (Arvis et al., 2007), which allows for comparison over time, too. All LPI reports and their aggregated data are freely available in the public domain in an interactive format at: http://lpi.worldbank.org/.

The LPI report puts together views of logistics professionals in more than 160 countries about how easy or difficult it is in these countries to transport general merchandise. The LPI 2018 index is compiled based on almost 6000 country assessments made by logistics professionals, which are also highly relevant in a global sourcing context.