Global Competitiveness Report

World Economic Forum’s
2007 Global Competitiveness Report

By Arpitha Bykere

This year’s World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report ranks the competitiveness of 133 countries based on macroeconomic and institutional factors, health, education, market (labor/product/financial) size and efficiency, infrastructure, business and technological development.

The U.S. tops the rankings due to high productive and innovative capacity, large domestic economy, and strong research affiliation between universities and businesses but the report notes that present macroeconomic and institutional trends like fiscal and trade deficits, public debt, dollar weakness and the role of private sector in policy-making are matters of concern. U.S. is followed by Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden and Germany in the rankings. Singapore and Japan topped the list among Asian countries while Chile and Mexico were in the top among Latam countries. Israel and Kuwait were the most competitive among the Middle-Eastern nations but Sub-Saharan countries performed very low in the ranking. China and India ranked 34th and 48th respectively. According to the report, while China had advantages like large domestic and foreign markets, it needs to improve the education system and the quality of institutions and financial markets. While India has improved market efficiency, business environment and innovation, it needs to address problems related to macroeconomic stability, infrastructure and access to health and education.

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