The results of the 2007 edition of IMD’s World Competive Yearbook highlight a big shake-up in economic and business power. Emerging nations are quickly catching up in competitiveness. New companies and new brands are appearing all over the world. They now contest the long standing competitive supremacy of industrialised nations. “This could lead to an increase in protectionist measures in Europe and the US” says Professor Stephane Garelli, Director of IMD’s World Competitiveness Centre

Of the 55 economies ranked by IMD, the USA still ranks No1 in 2007, closely followed by Singapore and Hong Kong.

However 40 economies are now increasing or maintaining thier competitiveness compared to the US - in other words “closing the gap”. Only 15 are losing ground.

China, Russia, India, the Slovak Republic, Estonia, Sweden, Austria, Australia, Denmark, Switzerland and Hong Kong have displayed a strong improvement in thier competitiveness performance in receny years. This does not imply that all of these nations are already at the top of the competitiveness league, However, they are catching up quickly. Such strong performances will obviously impact future rankings.

On the other hand, Indonesia. Italy, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, the Phillipines and France have tendeded to lose ground compared to the top league. Dispite some real and specific competitive advantage, these nations will sooner or later, lose thier standing in world competitiveness if they do not improve thier performance.

WCY 2007 Ranking
1 Long-term trends based on the evolution of overall competitiveness drawn from the IMD WCY database
Compound annual growth rate. 2006 rankings are in brackets.

1. Usa (1)
2. Singapore (3)
3. Hong Kong (2)
4. Luxembourg (9)
5. Denmark (5)
6. Switzerland (8)
7. Iceland (4)
8. Netherlands (15)
9. Sweden (14)
10. Canada (7)
11. Austria [13]
12. Australia (6)
13. Norway (12)
14. Ireland (11)
15. China Mainland [18]
16. Germany (25)
17. Finland (10)
18. Taiwan (17)
19. New Zealand (21)
20. United Kingdom (20)
21. Israel (24)
22. Estonia (19)
23. Malaysia (22)
24. Japan (16)
25. Belgium (26)
26. Chile (23)
27. India (27)
28. France (30)
29. Korea (32)
30. Spain (31)
31. Lithuania
32. Czech Republic (28)
33. Thailand (33)
34. Slovak Republic (34)
35. Hungary (35)
36. Greece (36)
37. Jordan (40)
38. Colombia (34)
39. Portugal (37)
40. Slovenia (39)
41. Bulgaria (41)
42. Italy (48)
43. Russia (46)
44. Romania [49]
45. Philippines (42)
46. Ukraine
47. Mexico (45)
48. Turkey (43)
49. Brazil (44)
50. South Africa (38)
51. Argentina (47]
52. Poland (50)
53. Croatia (51)
54. Indonesia (52]
55. Venezuela (53)