Canada, the 7th most competitive country in the world

The latest ranking from the Institute for Management Development (IMD) has just been released. There is little change in the top 10 from 2013. The United States remains in the lead. They are followed by Switzerland, Singapore and Hong-Kong, while Canada remains in 7th place.

There are no great changes at the top of the ranks of the most competitive countries in the world. Once again, the United States is in first place, far ahead of Switzerland, Singapore and Hong-Kong. Reading the results, the American giant certainly appears to have left the crisis behind. The IMD explains this first place by its economy’s resilience, its job market’s improvement and the dominant position it has in the technology and infrastructure sectors.

Mixed results in Europe

Meanwhile, Canada has held on to 7th place. It has been overtaken by Sweden (5th) and Germany (6th), who moved up three positions compared to last year. So Europe has partially recovered from the crisis. Among other countries of the euro zone with improved competitiveness are Ireland (17th to 15th), France (28th to 27th) and Spain (45th to 39th). Nonetheless, some countries have moved backwards, such as Italy (44th to 46th) and Greece (54th to 57th).

Lower growth in emerging countries

The large emerging economies such as China, India and Brazil also saw their competitiveness decline. China dropped two places, ranking 23rd, India lost four places to be ranked in 44th place and Brazil fell back three places to 54th position. The IMD explains these declines by the slowing of their economies, the drop in foreign investment and the lack of infrastructure. These three countries have also not matched the strong growth of recent years with the needed institutional reforms.

To arrive at this ranking, the IMD, based in Switzerland, uses 338 criteria, blending economic indicators with opinion surveys from a number of company leaders around the world.

The 10 most competitive countries

1. United States
2. Switzerland
3. Singapore
4. Hong Kong
5. Sweden
6. Germany
7. Canada
8. United Arab Emirates
9. Denmark
10. Norway