LAUSANNE, Switzerland, May 27,
2015 /PRNewswire/ --
The USA continues to top the ranking; Asia experiences mixed results; large emerging
economies mostly linger
IMD business school announces its annual world competitiveness
ranking. Ranking 61 economies in 2015, the IMD World
Competitiveness Center looked at several aspects of each country as
a place to conduct business.
"A general analysis of the 2015 ranking shows that top countries
are going back to the basics," said Professor Arturo Bris, Director of the IMD World
Competitiveness Center. "Productivity and efficiency are in the
driver's seat of the competitiveness wagon. Companies are
increasing their efforts to minimize their environmental impact and
provide a strong organizational structure for workforces to
thrive."
Access
results: http://www.worldcompetitiveness.com/press
Password: WCY15results
Ranking highlights
The USA remains at the
top of the ranking as a result of its strong business efficiency
and financial sector, its innovation drive and the effectiveness of
its infrastructure. Hong
Kong (2) and Singapore (3) move up overtaking
Switzerland, which
drops to fourth place. Canada (5), Norway (7), Denmark (8), Sweden (9) and Germany (10) remain in the top 10.
Luxembourg moves to the top
(6) from 11th place in 2014.
Results for Asia are mixed.
Malaysia (12 to 14),
Japan (21 to 27),
Thailand (29 to 30) and
Indonesia (37 to 42) move
down. Taiwan (13 to 11),
Republic of Korea (26 to 25) and the Philippines (42 to 41) slightly
rise.
Current events in Russia
(38 to 45) and Ukraine (49
to 60) highlight the negative impact that armed conflict and the
accompanying higher market volatility have on competitiveness.
A pattern of decline is observed in Latin America. Chile moves from 31 to 35, Peru from 50 to 54, Argentina from 58 to 59 and
Venezuela remains at the
bottom of the table. Colombia stays at 51.
Among large emerging economies, Brazil (54 to 56) and South Africa (52 to 53) slightly drop,
China (23 to 22) and
Mexico (41 to 39)
experience improvements while India remains at the same spot (44).
The ranking highlights one particular commonality among the best
ranking countries. Nine countries from the top 10 are also listed
in the top 10 of the business efficiency factor.
Luxembourg experiences
one of the largest gains in this factor (14 to 4) which greatly
contributes to its ascendency. Qatar's improvement (19 to 13) largely
reflects its recovering in terms of the business efficiency factor
(24 to 11) due to increases in its overall productivity.
Greece's recovery (57 to
50) also comes on a strong performance in business efficiency.
Germany's retreat (6 to 10)
is a reflection of its fall in business efficiency (9 to 16).
Likewise Indonesia's
decline is accompanied by a steep drop in the business efficiency
factor (22 to 34).
The IMD World Competitiveness Center is part of
IMD
IMD is a top-ranked business school in Lausanne and Singapore, recognized as the expert in
developing global leaders through high-impact executive
education.
Cross reference: Picture is available at epa european pressphoto
agency (http://www.epa.eu) and
http://www.presseportal.ch/de/pm/100006390/imd-international
CONTACT:
Matthew Mortellaro,
+41-21-618-0352 matthew.mortellaro@imd.org