Singapore remains the most competitive economy in Asia and third in the world in a recently released global competitiveness ranking.
According to the latest annual Global Competitiveness Report released by the World Economic Forum (WEF), Switzerland is still the world’s most competitive economy closely followed by Sweden, which emerged as the new number two.
The United States slipped two spots to fourth due to weak financial system and large deficits caused by the fallout from the economic crisis.
Apart from macroeconomic imbalances developing over time in the US, the weakening of its private and public institutions and “lingering concerns about the state of its financial markets” have significantly affected its ranking.
Once again, Nordic countries Sweden, Finland (which ranks 7th), Denmark (9th) and Norway (14th) dominated the top 15, while Japan (6th), Hong Kong (11th) and Taiwan (13th) strongly represented Asia.
The Global Competitiveness Report measures the productivity and the capacity of a country for sustainable growth in the next five to ten years.